Facade
by doomxdesire94
Summary: SEGA/Archie crossover. Revenge can warp the mind and cause a person to fall to their demise. But when everything is thrown into chaos, what's left to stop it? Rated T for violence, blood, and some language.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: All characters and setting belong to SEGA

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Chapter 1

**Sega Universe:**

Things had been pretty quiet for last six months around Station Square. Ever since the last climactic battle against world-renowned hero Sonic the Hedgehog and evil scientist Dr. Eggman half a year ago, nothing was heard from the doctor and most had assumed he was either taking a break or had finally quit altogether.

Most thought the latter and had gone about their normal routines. Among those were Amy Rose, the now official girlfriend of Sonic the Hedgehog, and Cream the rabbit. The two had been shopping in town while gossiping about their latest endeavors.

"I'm telling you Cream, it was the most romantic thing he's ever done!" Amy squealed loudly. Cream, Cheese, and Amy had taken a break at a café in town and were sipping on some beverages.

"I'm really happy for you Amy." Cream replied with a smile while Cheese clapped. The rabbit, now ten years old, had grown considerably. Lately she adorned a longer orange dress and was wearing a pair of matching flip-flops. The blue ribbon was still hung around her neck as always though.

Amy, now being age 16, looked a lot different. Now she wore a thin pink sundress with white leggings. She had kept her boots and golden bracelets but she let her quills grow out to hang halfway down her back. She also wore a pink heart necklace that apparently was a recent gift from Sonic.

"I was afraid he would never get over his shyness over these things." Amy sighed while playing with her new necklace. "But when Sonic took me on our two-year anniversary he completely surprised me! Everything was perfect!"

"I'm sure everyone at the picnic will think Mr. Sonic did a very nice thing as well Amy!" Cream exclaimed.

Since Dr. Eggman had been missing for some time Sonic and Tails decided to host a picnic for all of their friends. It was planned for later today and Amy and Cream started heading there after they finished at the cafe.

Green Hill Zone hadn't changed much since Sonic's first encounter with Dr. Eggman there and was looking as beautiful as ever. Amy and Cream walked over the small hills to the closest loop shaped mountain. No one quite knew how these mountains came to be shaped this way, but they become a popular tourist attraction over the years.

Cream spotted Tails right at the edge of the loop setting up the picnic blanket and both she and Amy ran over to him. Although Tails was four years older he still looked exactly the same besides him being a little taller.

"Hey guys!" Tails greeted enthusiastically while setting up some plates. The wind seemed to keep blowing them off the blanket and he was busy trying to keep them all in one place.

"Here let me help Tails!" Cream said while catching the escaping plates. After securing them on the blanket by putting the silverware on them, the group sat down happily.

"Wasn't Mr. Knuckles and Miss Rouge supposed to be here already Tails?" Cream questioned politely to Tails. He blushed slightly as Cream stared at him expectantly and quickly coughed.

"Uh… well Knuckles and Rouge gave me a call earlier and said they had to cancel. They said something about the Master Emerald but I didn't get the details." Tails said still blushing at Cream.

"When is Sonic getting here?" Amy questioned while giving Tails and Cream a sideway glance. It was obvious to Amy that Tails and Cream had started to get closer as they grew older and Tails had shown signs of liking Cream on more than one occasion.

"Hopefully soon Amy…" Tails said suddenly lost in thought. He looked down at the blanket with a slight frown.

"Is something wrong Tails?" Cream asked innocently. Tails didn't look up from the blanket and just shrugged.

"Well, to be completely honest Cream I haven't heard from Sonic in a few days…" he said looking up at her with fearful eyes. "I mean he said he would be at the workshop first thing this morning to help carry the supplies over but he never showed up. So I went ahead and headed over thinking he must've got held up with something."

"Did you try contacting him?" Amy asked reaching for her communicator under her bracelet.

"Yes actually. I tried reaching him but he didn't pick up." Tails replied. "I mean, normally I wouldn't be so worried but Sonic promised he would be here. And you guys know Sonic never breaks a promise…"

"Do you think something happened to him?" Cream asked looking fearfully at Cheese.

"We should go look for him!" Amy announced as if it was obvious. "What if he had been captured by Eggman or something? He might need help!"

"But Amy, if Eggman had come back, wouldn't we have heard something about it? Maybe he's on his way now." Tails replied clearly in denial. Truth be told, Tails had considered the idea while he was heading over. But he wanted to stay positive and think Sonic would meet up at the picnic. But when he hadn't arrived Tails' worry grew even more.

"We can't take that chance Tails!" Amy shouted. "My Sonniku could be in trouble and I couldn't bear to see anything happen to him!" Even though Amy grew out of most of her fan girl antics, she still sometimes acted a little over the top.

"Okay, okay Amy." Tails said sweat dropping. "I put a GPS on everyone's communicators so I should be able to track him that way. But the tracker is back at the workshop so we'll have to take the tornado."

They all agreed that this was the best course of action and headed toward the workshop. As they flew overhead the hills, Tails desperately hoped Sonic was all right and this was all just one big misunderstanding.

**Archie Universe:**

New Mobotropolis flourished with life as the citizens took advantage of the quiet atmosphere as of late. The Freedom Fighters had been given a break from the constant attacks from the evil Dr. Robotnik, now calling himself Dr. Eggman, and were taking a well-deserved rest.

However, Rotor and the city's AI, Nicole, had been furiously investigating a series of natural disasters that had occurred all over Mobius.

"This doesn't make any sense." Rotor mumbled to himself as he looked over some charts. He and Nicole had been bombarded with reports of natural disasters ranging from floods to earthquakes, all at the same from various locations across the globe.

"From the information I've collected Rotor, I'd have to agree with you." Nicole said through the computer screen. She had been running some diagnostic scans over the data that had been given to them.

"Did you find anything useful Nicole?" Rotor questioned while wiping sweat from his forehead. The yellow hat he normally wore had been laid to the side as he put a hand over his head.

"I'm detecting a strange energy signature in each location." Nicole stated while pulling up some graphs on the screen. "But something is odd about it."

"The energy signature is very similar to chaos energy found in the emeralds. However, my readings indicate that it is not exactly the same when I run a test on both." Nicole pulls up another graph showing the two energies. "This red one is the chaos emerald energy and the blue one is the energy being picked up at the locations. As you can see, the two are almost completely identical."

"Well that definitely is odd Nicole." Rotor answered back with a sigh. He had worked nonstop since the reports flooded in late last night and was starting to get tired.

A thud is heard right outside as Sonic is seen speeding inside the main headquarters. "Sonic you are so dead!" Knuckles yells while storming into the headquarters. He was covered head to toe in water and had a murderous look in his eyes. Nicole and Rotor just shake their heads.

"Knux I told ya it was just an accident!" Sonic said defensively. His hand was covering his mouth in an attempt to keep from laughing as he hid behind a chair.

"Oh because having buckets of water over doors is normal." Knuckles said, his voice dripping in sarcasm. He slowly stomped forward the grinning hedgehog.

"Sonic and Knuckles!" exclaims a female voice from outside. "Stop behaving like children or go outside and stop bothering Rotor and Nicole."

"I'm not acting like a child!" Sonic and Knuckles both exclaimed at the same time. Knuckles glared at Sonic as he ran towards the safety of the front door.

"Aw come on Sal." Sonic said casually. "It's not my fault Knux doesn't watch where he's goin'."

Sally Acorn then stands just outside the door with her hands on her hips. "That is enough out of both of you. Why don't you guys do something productive instead of always trying to kill each other?" Sally says with an exasperated sigh.

"But-" both teens began but immediately shut up after Sally sent a death glare in their direction.

"Actually I'm glad you all are here. I think you should see this" Nicole says pulling up the graphs for them to see. She explains her and Rotor's findings over the last few hours and how they were affecting everything.

"Wait so this energy is causing all that to happen?" Sonic asked after Nicole finished with the explanation.

"From the data I have collected, yes." Nicole said while materializing in front of the group. "And I'm afraid I have more bad news. I managed to track the source of the energy as well" The group expectantly stared back at her. "It seems to be coming from one of the factories in Robotropolis."

"It figures Robuttnik would do something like this." Sonic said slapping his fist into his palm. "Well, we are going to do something about it right?"

"I suggest sending a team to investigate as soon as possible Sally." Nicole says while bringing up more graphs. "The energy is getting stronger and if something isn't done, the results could be catastrophic."

"Well what are we waiting for?" Sonic asks with a voice full of confidence. "The longer we stand around the worse it gets. Let's do it to it!"

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**Well I finally decided to start my first fanfic. Sorry for it being so short but later chapters will most likely be much longer. Please feel free to give me constructive criticism on grammar or suggestions on the story so I can improve it! Thanks.**


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: All characters and setting belong to SEGA

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Chapter 2

**Sega Universe:**

Tails and the others had picked up the tracker at his workshop and were now heading towards the location of Sonic's communicator.

"Has he moved or anything yet?" Tails yelled over the Tornado's engines.

"Not yet!" Amy answered back. It had been over 20 minutes since they located Sonic, and the dot on the tracker had yet to move. Amy knew Sonic wasn't the type to stay in one place for long, so him not moving was a reason for concern.

"Look at that!" Cream exclaimed. Tails had just come across a forest near Station Square and were very close to Sonic's current location.

However, the entire area looked like it had been through a tornado. Trees had snapped branches, leaves were sprung everywhere, and burn marks were spread all over the grass.

"It looks like a battlefield down there!" Amy yelled. "But I don't see Sonic anywhere!"

"Maybe we should land and search on foot." Cream suggested.

So Tails hastily landed the tornado and followed the path of broken trees. Every few steps they would yell out Sonic's name, hoping to hear anything from the blue blur. Amy looked in the bushes, secretly hoping she wouldn't come across a bruised and battered Sonic lying behind them.

"Hey guys!" suddenly yelled a male voice from up ahead. The trio snapped their heads towards the voice only to be disappointed when the Chaotix walked around the corner.

"What are you guys doing here?" Amy asked rather rudely. Seeing the Chaotix instead of Sonic made her feel pretty irritated.

"Good to see you too." Vector said sarcastically. Amy just rolled her eyes. "Anyways, we were heading back from a case when we saw this mess and decided to investigate!"

"Don't you mean you decided to Vector?" Espio snapped while Charmy was leaning on his shoulder. The two looked pretty beat. "Charmy and I just wanted to go home and rest."

"And miss an opportunity of a one of kind case?" Vector asked feigning shock. "Boys, this could be the case of a lifetime!"

"But Mr. Vector, you don't understand." Cream says interrupting the three. "We're looking for Mr. Sonic. He could be in trouble."

"Wait, so it was only Sonic that caused this?" Vector asks with a disappointed face. "Well, where is he?"

"That's what we're trying to find out." Tails answers while looking down at the tracker. "We've tracked his communicator here but haven't been able to find him anywhere."

"Well, since we're here, we could help look for him." Vector suggests. He looks over at his teammates. "Right boys?"

"I suppose so." Espio says while pushing Charmy off his shoulder. Charmy almost falls flat on his face, as he had snoozed off on Espio, but manages to catch himself from doing so at the last minute.

"What Espio said!" Charmy exclaims suddenly full of energy. Everyone just shakes their heads.

With more people helping, the search continued. Tails ends up walking into a clearing while staring down at the tracker. The dot still hadn't budged and he was beginning to fear the worst. However, he spied a small light shining through one of the bushes to his right.

Moving excitedly towards it, Tails pushed back the leaves but stops dead in his tracks at the sight in front of him.

Hoping he had found Sonic, he instead finds the communicator discarded on the ground. But that isn't his main concern. Lying on the grass beside the device were small drips of blood.

Hundreds of images flash through Tails' mind as he stays frozen in the spot. For a few seconds, all he can do is stare at the spot in front of him. But, he manages to calm himself and look over the communicator, believing to hold a clue of Sonic's whereabouts.

But his search only brings more bad news. It appeared the wrist strap had been cut and was the reason it was no longer on Sonic's wrist. And judging by the carnage near the location, Tails could only include that Sonic had been attacked and must have lost the communicator in the fight. However, this only leads to another deadly revelation. Why hadn't Sonic simply picked it up afterwards?

"Did you find anything Tails?" Amy asks, coming in his direction. The others weren't far behind. However, Tails doesn't answer her at first and instead just turns around, his face very pale.

"I…I found this lying on the ground." Tails tells the group. The group widens their eyes.

"But where is Sonic?" Amy whispers in fear.

As the group stares in silence, Tails' communicator suddenly beeps on. "Hey is anyone there?" a female voice asks. "Hello?"

"Yea I'm here Rouge." Tails replies rather shakily. "Something wrong?"

"We need you guys to come up to Angel Island as soon as possible. We have a problem."

"…We'll be up right away." Tails answers after a few seconds of silence.

"What about looking for Sonic?" Amy demands as Tails closes the communicator and heads back towards the plane. "We can't just leave!"

"I've got an idea." Says Vector from behind Amy. "We can search around for Sonic while you guys go see what's up at the island. And you don't even have to worry about paying us. Consider it a favor."

"Oh really Mr. Vector?" exclaims Cream. "That's very nice of you!" Vector just rubs the back of his head and nods.

"Fine." Says Amy stubbornly. "But as soon as you hear anything about my Sonic, you better get your butts back to the island and let us know."

As Amy, Cream, and Tails leave for Angel Island, The Chaotix began searching for more clues. "Ya think Sonic is ok?" Charmy asks innocently.

"Sonic can easily take care of himself Charmy." Vector says simply. "If Eggman has anything to do with this, I'm positive that guy can handle it."

**Archie Universe:**

The following night, Sally gathered a team to infiltrate Robotropolis. Since Bunnie and Antoine were still out on a mission, Knuckles volunteered to take their place as back up with Tails. Sonic would provide the distraction as always, and Sally and Nicole would locate the energy source.

"Now, the energy is coming from one of the factories on the outskirts of the city." Rotor tells Sally through their communicator.

"Got it Rotor." Whispers Sally. She motions to the others to go ahead and start the plan. Sonic grins and gives her a thumbs up and runs past the others.

Despite the anxiety she felt inside, she gives him a smile back and continues on. Truth be told, Sally had a nagging feeling in the back of her mind about this entire scenario. Dr. Eggman had launched multiple attacks over the last month, but he hadn't actually come at any of the attacks in person. If this strange energy was that important for him to not leave the city, then things were about to get a lot more complicated.

As she dodged a few security robots, she rounded a corner and came across a massive, run down factory. Two Swatbots were currently stationed to guard the front door and Sally could see Sonic already starting to distract them.

As the 'bots chased Sonic in the opposite direction, Sally ran to the door and immediately brought out Nicole to hack inside. Knuckles and Tails, who were just behind Sally, were on the lookout for any passing guards.

"ACCESS GRANTED." Beeps Nicole as the door slides open. The trio then hastily run inside and begin searching for anything out of the ordinary.

"What exactly should we be looking for?" Knuckles asks.

"The energy seems to be coming from one of the rooms in the back of the factory." Nicole responded. "Just look for anything that may look like it could send a signal." Sally and the other then begin searching.

At first, there doesn't seem to be anything of any importance. Lots of the rooms were filled to the brim in spare parts and broken down machines. There wasn't even any guards around either. It almost seemed like they we're expected.

As the group enter the final hallway of doors, Nicole's tracker starts to beep furiously. "It has to be down here." Says Sally while heading for the door at the end of the hall. Knuckles and Tails raise their fists in a defensive stance as Sally slowly pushes open the door.

The lights flash on as the trio enter the room and reveals a small device on a pedestal. The machine itself is grey and red, and has a large antenna sticking out of its top. It had a rectangular body, sorta like a cube, and a small compartment was hidden on the side. To be honest, it didn't look like the sort of thing to cause that much trouble.

"Is that it?" Knuckles asks while stepping towards it.

"Knuckles wait-" yells Sally but, she's too late. When Knuckles took a step, it set off a series of alarms. Sally quickly grabs the device and motions Tails and Knuckles to follow her back down the hallway.

Swatbots start pouring inside the factory as the trio run for their lives. One manages to grab Tails by the arm and tackles him to the floor. Upon seeing this, Knuckles smashes through the robot's torso, freeing him. Another 'bot then comes from behind the two and starts firing lasers at them. Tails grabs Knuckles' hands and throws him towards it. The force of impact causes the robot to fall over like a domino, all the while causing the other enemies to fall over their fallen comrade.

Meanwhile with Sally and Nicole, swatbots narrowly miss Sally by inches as she dashes out the front door. Holding the device close to her, she goes toward the edge of the city. However, when she rounds a corner, a group of 'bots are there waiting for her. She quickly turns around to escape but the ones that were chasing her block off her path.

"YOU ARE TO COME WITH US UNDER THE ORDERS OF DR. EGGMAN." One of the robots drone. Sally furiously shakes her head. As the group come closer, however, a blue wind begins to surround them.

The swatbots go flying and end up exploding into millions of pieces. Sally, who had closed her eyes to protect them from the strong gust, opens them back up to reveal a smirking Sonic.

"Looked like ya needed some help." He says simply while putting his hands on his hips. "What's the matter Sal? Can't handle a few 'bots?" He asks playfully.

Sally just rolls her eyes as Knuckles and Tails come running towards them. "Sorry." Tails tells them. "Ran into some trouble on the way back."

"Well, it looks like we got what we came from." Sonic says. "That was way too easy."

"_A little too easy.'" _thinks Sally. The feeling she had at the beginning of the trip was still in the back of her head on the way back to New Mobotropolis. With a device of such importance, one would think there would be more security in guarding it. Sally considered the idea that they may have grabbed the wrong thing but, shakes her when she realizes Nicole is rarely wrong in these sort of things. But, that only brings up another question, what exactly is it?

**?:**

Everything is silent.

As Sonic comes too, he tries to remember what the heck happened to give him such a headache. _"Last thing I remember was going out for a run." _

Sonic tries to move his body, but for some reason it feels heavy. As he searches his mind for an answer, memories began flooding back into his head. He had been right that he did go out for a run before the picnic but, something had happened. He was taking a shortcut through the forest to Tails' Workshop and was almost there when a robot suddenly fell out of the sky, weapons aimed straight for the surprised hedgehog.

The 'bot wasn't exactly easy either. None of his moves fazed it and it just kept pounding attacks on him. Then, as Sonic reared in for another homing attack, he was suddenly blinded. That was the last thing he remembered before he woke up.

So, the first thing that pops into Sonic's mind is that he had been captured and was being held down. But, after a few minutes, he's able to shift his body into an upward position.

He then attempts to open his eyes but is blinded by a bright, white light. He quickly closes them shut again and then focuses on his getting his body to stand up instead. After a few unsuccessful tries, he succeeds in doing so and gently rubs his eyes.

When his vision focuses on the light, though, Sonic almost falls back down to the ground at the image in front of him. For a few seconds he just stands and stares as the very familiar area in silence. Then his mind finally finds a suitable response at the sight in front of him.

"You've got to be kidding me."

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**First of all, thanks for the all the reviews and follows! I've went back and fixed some grammar mistakes that were pointed out. I'm going to try and post the next chapter sometime next week but no promises. Hope you all enjoy!**


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: All characters and settings belong to Sega.

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Chapter 3

**Archie Universe:**

It had been three days since the device was recovered in Robotropolis, and Nicole and Rotor still weren't any closer to an answer as to what the thing actually was. At first, it seemed to be a transmitter device. But all the evidence they had gathered before was now null and void, as the energy signature had mysteriously disappeared.

"It must've been a decoy." Sally said with gritted teeth. She had been checking back with Rotor and Nicole every few hours, desperately hoping they would find anything useful. The fact that they may have wasted time on the mission wasn't helping that bad feeling still in the back of her mind.

Truth be told, nothing had been going well lately. Dr. Eggman's attacks on other regions were becoming more frequent. Villages had been ransacked by Eggman's Army and the other Freedom Fighter groups were being pushed to their limits. For a long while, attacks were non-stop and often times members of Sally's team had been called in to help.

It was only recently that Bunnie and Antoine, members of the Freedom Fighters in New Mobotropolis, had been called in to help the Dowunda Freedom Fighters against an attack. Even though they did succeed in driving Eggman's forces back, Antoine, however, suffered an ankle injury and was now was bedridden for a few days. Needless to say, the future wasn't looking too bright at the moment.

"Don't worry Sally girl." Bunnie said reassuringly. "Ah'm positive Nicole and Rotor will find somethin'."

"I know." Sally sighed as she stood just outside the main lab of the headquarters. "I guess I'm just a little impatient. I think Sonic is rubbing off on me."

"Well, sugah hog does have a way of doin' that to people." Bunnie laughs. She hands Sally a cup of coffee and sits down at a table. Sally slowly goes to sit down, clearly still in deep thought.

"How's Antoine feeling?" Sally asks while trying to take her mind off the current situation.

"Oh, he's doin' fine." She replies. "Ah think he's enjoin' the rest, even though he's too stubborn to admit it."

"I can believe it." Sally answers with a smile. The small break from waiting had lightened up her mood and made her feel a little better. Bunnie always had a way of cheering Sally up from whatever funk she managed to put herself into.

As the two continued to talk, Sonic and Tails suddenly barge into the headquarters and cause a small gust of wind to fly through the room, causing Sally's cup of coffee to almost tumble onto her. Sally just glares at the two in frustration as they stop just inside.

"Hah!" Sonic exclaims. "I think I just beat my record." He strikes a victory pose as Tails bends over to catch his breath. "How about another race 'lil bro?"

"No thanks Sonic." Tail said as he gasped for breath. "I think I need a break."

"Heh, ok. We'll take a little break." Sonic says while walking over to the girls.

"I thought you guys went back to Angel Island with Knuckles?" Sally asked the two while wiping off some coffee that had spilled onto her arm.

"Well, we did go over there but we came back 'cause Knuckles was being boring." Sonic replied casually. "So, we decided to go come back here and get some lunch."

"Speaking of which, all that running around has made me really hungry." Tails says, rubbing his stomach.

"Let's head over to Chuck's Diner and get some chili dogs then Tails." Sonic suggests. "You guys want anything?" He asks Bunnie and Sally.

"No thanks sugah hog." Bunnie replies while Sally shakes her head. Sonic just shrugs and he and Tails head to go get some lunch.

"Those two are always running around somewhere." Sally laughs as they head off. "Hopefully they'll make it to the diner without getting distracted by another race this time."

"Ah'll say." Bunnie says. "How about we go check on up Rotor and Nicole?"

The two girls then head into the main control room of the New Mobotropolis Headquarters. When they enter, they see Rotor placing the device they found in Robotropolis on a table.

"Hey girls." Rotor greets them as he plops down into a chair. Various papers were scattered all over the place, indicating the two geniuses had been pretty busy the last few days.

"Looks like ya'll been hard at work." Bunnie says while crossing her arms.

"Did you find anything?" Sally asks hopefully. However, Rotor just scratches the back of his head in reply.

"After various scans over the device, there is nothing that shows any sign of the energy signature I found earlier." Nicole responds for Rotor. "However, that doesn't mean this wasn't the device that was causing all those occurrences either."

"What do you mean?" Sally asked.

"Well, it seems the device is actually powered by the energy signature that was radiating from it before. So, it seems plausible to conclude that it was actually being activated remotely. When you all went into Robotropolis to retrieve the device, Dr. Eggman must have switched the device off when you successfully obtained it." Nicole explained.

"So that just means we need to go get this remote?" Bunnie asked.

"Not quite." Nicole responded. "Not only was the device activated by the remote, our readings indicate that it's powered by, what we believe, to be a chaos emerald."

"You believe?" Sally questions while raising an eyebrow.

"Well, the readings are being blocked by the other energy signature, so it is very hard to pinpoint an exact source. But, a chaos emerald is definitely seen mixed in with the other data we have collected."

"In other words, the device is useless without a power source." Rotor replies with a sigh. "On the bright side, at least all those natural disasters have stopped. I think you guys retrieving the machine may have delayed Eggman at the very least."

"Obtaining some of Dr. Eggman's files may reveal the exact reason for the energy signatures as well." Nicole adds. "Perhaps the next infiltration into Robotropolis we could hack into his main database."

"I'll make plans to do so then at the next meeting." Sally replied while standing up. "So, is the device useful at all or-"

Sally is suddenly cut off when said device began to vibrate uncontrollably. Rotor quickly tried to back away, but before anyone could react, the antenna on top of the machine emanated a bright white light.

As the room was enveloped with the light, time seemed to slow down. Sally could vaguely hear Nicole shouting at her and the others. As she tried to move, her body slowly shut down and she could feel herself fall to the ground.

Next thing she knew, she began to pass out. Then, the world abruptly went black…

**Sega Universe: With Team Dark**

"Damnit." Shadow cursed while holding his injured arm. What had turned into a simple scouting mission had now transformed into an all-out brawl and was getting on Shadow's nerves.

With Dr. Eggman being out of commission for so long, GUN thought it would be in their best interest to send a team to go scout him out. It was believed that Eggman was planning something big and would likely be too distracted to notice any intruders. At least, before, when he planned anything like this it was easy getting any information.

However, it almost seemed like Dr. Eggman was expecting someone to come into his base. When Shadow, Rouge, and Omega went to inspect the base, there was security cameras littered all over the complex. It took the trio almost 20 minutes to get in unseen. But even then, they were greeted with more cameras and small handfuls of robots patrolling the hallways.

Rouge immediately knew something was wrong the moment they got inside the complex. For one thing, Eggman never bothered to patrol any other part of a base, besides the main control room, unless he was hiding something huge.

There was also the fact that the robots in the base seemed to sport a new design. These 'bots looked very humanoid and their dark blue color schemes hid them very well in the shadows of the halls. They were also a lot smarter than the normal egg pawns that normally patrolled and it was near impossible to sneak past one.

Eventually, though, the trio was able to arrive into one of the security rooms unseen. Upon searching through Dr. Eggman's files, the group managed to obtain some files. However, when the last of the files were being uploaded by Omega, alarms rang out through the base and the group was immediately chased out of the room.

As a fight breaks out between the two forces, things seemed pretty easy at first with Omega firing rounds of rockets at the army of 'bots. But the attacks were only pushing the reinforcements back and left the exterior intact. Shadow and Rouge then unleashed a flurry of kicks and punches at the new robots. Things then got a little complicated.

Shadow had resorted to flinging chaos spears at the enemies as the trio raced through the corridors. The attacks seemed to more damage than Omega's rocket for whatever reason, so Rouge and Omega were taking care of the 'bots behind them while Shadow plowed into the ones in front.

However, as Shadow summoned more chaos spears and flung them at the last remaining 'bots, the spears suddenly stopped halfway through the throw and drop to the ground! Then, as Shadow stood stock still in shock, one of the robots shot a laser and managed to snag him on the arm.

"What happened?" Rouge asked when she saw Shadow clutch his arm. But, he just ignored her and attempted to try his attack again.

But it yielded the same result each time he tried, and the spears just fell to the ground, as if they just lost all their power in the middle of the throw.

The group then rounded a corner and saw the exit at the end of the hallway. Since Shadow's chaos spears were useless, he instead put on a burst of speed and smashed through the 'bots using his boost move. The air around him causes the robots to slam into the walls and explode, allowing them a safe run to the door.

Shadow then goes back to grab Rouge's hand and speeds out the door, while Omega follows on his rocket boosters. The remaining robots that were behind them then give chase outside the base but quickly lose the group's trail as they spread into the forest surrounding the base.

After a few minutes of navigating through the thick brush of trees, the team arrives back to the GUN helicopter they had hid near the base and take off. After making sure they are a safe distance from the base and no flying robots were pursuing them, Rouge sets the helicopter in auto pilot, and her and Omega walk up to Shadow, who was standing in the back of the vehicle.

"Shadow, what exactly happened back there?" Rouge asked him. In all the years she had worked with him, she had never once seen him get so distracted that he lost all focus on his task. It was very unusual for him to make a mistake like that and frankly, it had her very concerned.

Shadow was silent for a few minutes before he finally answered her. "Something is wrong with my chaos powers." He said looking at her.

"Did they stop working?" Rouge asks in surprise.

"…Not exactly." Shadow replies. He then goes on to explain what exactly had happened when he tried attacking the robots. Afterwards, Rouge and Omega just stare at him in silence.

"SENSORS INDICATE THAT YOU ARE IN HEALTHY CONDITION." Omega drones after scanning him to find a cause for his powers to malfunction.

"Maybe Eggman found a way to block the attack?" Rouge suggests.

"It's possible." Shadow replied while looking out of one of the windows. "Maybe the doctor installed some device in those new robots."

"Well, whatever he did, we can worry about it once we give GUN these files." Rouge said patting Shadow on the back in a playful manner. Shadow just gives her a cold stare in response.

As the group travels back to GUN, however, Omega suddenly speaks out. "SCANNERS ARE DETECTING A LARGE AMOUNT OF ENERGY SIGNATURES NEAR OUR LOCATION. THEY SEEM TO BE ORIGINATING FROM ANGEL ISLAND."

"Seems Knuckie might have a problem." Rouge says while opening up one of the doors to the helicopter. "Omega, why don't you take the files back to the base while Shadow and I see what's up on the island?"

"UNDERSTOOD." Omega replies while taking control of the helicopter. Rouge and Shadow then jump out of the helicopter as it flies over the island.

When the two then land near the Master Emerald shrine, Knuckles is heard cursing at the air. Shadow and Rouge quickly dash through the forest of trees in front of them to see what is wrong, but stop dead in their tracks when the shrine comes into full view.

As the two move their eyes towards the top of the shrine, they gasp in awe, for the Master Emerald, which was normally bathed in a soft, green light, had now been replaced by a stark, jet black and was emanating thin lines of dark energy all over the shrine…

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**As always, thanks for the reviews so far and stay tuned for the next chapter!  
**


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: All characters and settings belong to Sega.

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Chapter 4

**?: With Sega Sonic**

White Space.

Never in a million years did Sonic think he would ever see this place again. He gazed around at the whiteness in front of him in awe.

"How did I end up back here?" Sonic asked himself.

It had been over two years since he had last seen the place, and that was way back on his 16th birthday. Eggman had brought Sonic and his friends to the place and tried to erase his previous losses by using a creature he had found called the Time Eater. Locations that Sonic had visited in the past were also sent to White Space and had been drained off all their life and color.

However, when Eggman had recruited his younger self to help destroy Sonic, past versions of him and Tails came into White Space as well. Together, they all restored the locations, and their friends that had been frozen in time as well, and beat the Time Eater before it could cause any more damage to the time stream.

So, why did this place still exist? It was assumed after Dr. Eggman had been defeated and returned back to the real world that the place had disappeared.

'_Well, I may as well take a look around.'_ Sonic thought as he dashed further into the white abyss.

At first, there didn't seem to be anything there at all. For miles, it looked like all Sonic could do was run on the endless, white path. But, the ground suddenly started to shake.

"What the heck!" Sonic exclaimed as he skidded to a stop. As he tried to keep his balance, objects suddenly started to come out of the ground and were getting bigger the further up they came.

Before long, an entire city had managed to surround Sonic as he stood in surprise. Just a few seconds earlier there was nothing, then out of thin air, a burning city manifested all around him.

Sonic was now standing on a crumbling highway set in between a few burning buildings. Everything seemed to be on fire and strange, fire creatures started to pop out of the ground and were attacking the ruins of the city.

"Wait, isn't this...Crisis City?" Sonic asked in surprise.

The city was one of the places Sonic had restored when he ran through it during his last visit to White Space. So, why was it still here? All the other places he had restored had gone back where they belonged.

However, there was one fact Sonic almost forgot about it. When he ran through it during the while Time Eater incident, he didn't actually know the place like he did the others. He never thought much about it the first time he was here. But, since it was here again, it got him concerned.

But, Sonic decided to worry about that fact later. Right now, he needed to figure out a way out of here.

So, he started to dash across the highway below him. The path he followed before seemed to pretty much stay the same from the last time he was here, so he had no trouble getting lost. He came across some crumbling building and effortlessly jumped back and forth between them as he navigated his way across a giant chasm. Some of the fire monsters that had appeared were trying to block his path as well. But, Sonic just used his homing attack to slice through the hordes of enemies.

He then found some lone platforms that were wedged between more crumbling buildings. As Sonic raced forward, he went to boost right off a ramp at the end of his path. However, he heard a loud yelp halfway down the road.

"AHHH!" a male voice screamed. Sonic immediately halted and turned toward the source of the noise. _'Sounds like someone needs help!'_ He thought as he ran at top speed and braced to attack.

As he came around one of the corners of a building though, Sonic almost stopped dead in his tracks when he spied the person yelling out for help.

For the first time in six months, Sonic saw his arch-nemesis Dr. Eggman standing in the middle of the ruined city. How exactly he ended up here was a mystery to Sonic but he was more concerned about something else.

Somehow, Eggman had managed to trap himself at the edge of one of the platforms and was surrounded by a few fire bird creatures. They looked ready to attack him any second now and he had run out of room to run.

Knowing he was going to regret it later, Sonic decided to help him out before he got himself killed. As Eggman slowly backed closer to the edge of the platform, he fearfully stared at his pursuers. Then, one of the fire birds decided it was time to attack and went to shoot one of its fireballs straight for him.

But, the shot never got far, as Sonic swooped in and homing attacked all the birds in one go. Eggman, who had closed his eyes in fear, heard familiar chuckling when he realized he was still alive.

When he opened his eyes, his jaw nearly fell to the ground when he saw Sonic smirking in front of him. "Sonic?!" he yelled in shock.

"Looked like you needed some help Egghead." Sonic replied with his smirk turning into a grin, as Eggman still stood in surprise.

"W-what are you doing here?" Eggman asked after he got over the fact that Sonic had just saved his life.

"Jeez, not even going to thank me?" Sonic teased. Eggman didn't reply, so Sonic just shrugged his shoulders and answered his question. "Well, I kind of just woke up here."

"Woke up?" Eggman asked in genuine surprise. He had walked away from the edge and was now standing a few feet from the still grinning hero.

"Yea." Sonic replied as if it was obvious. "After your robot attacked me, I must have blacked out and ended up waking up in White Space." He glanced over at Eggman who looked at him in confusion. "Looks like something went wrong with your plan since you're here too."

"I didn't send any robot after you rodent." Eggman said defensively. "Nor do I know how I got here."

"What do you mean?" Sonic asked. "It was definitely one of your 'bots that was attacking me. What exactly is your plan this time?"

"As I said before, I did NOT send any of my creations after you." Eggman replied in anger. "The last thing I remember doing was being in my base. Then, there was a bright light and I woke up in this desolate place!"

"Keep your pants on!" Sonic replied while holding up his hands at the now enraged Eggman. "How about we just focus on getting out of the city first?" Sonic suggested. "Then we can figure out what happened when we get out."

Eggman just stared at him in silence before he answered. "Are you suggesting a temporary truce?"

"Sure, if you wanna call it that." Sonic said simply. "There's obviously something going on here, but were not going to find out what by just standing around here." He then looked at Eggman with a mischievous smile. "Besides, I don't think you'd survive getting out of here without any your robot slaves to save your butt."

"Fine." Eggman said while choosing to ignore Sonic's other comment. Sonic just grinned at him. "But don't expect any favors rodent."

"Wouldn't expect anything less."

So, the two rivals continued navigating their way out of the city. Dr. Eggman had to stay behind Sonic as he attacked the monsters out in front and quickly ran after him so he wouldn't get left behind.

As they came closer to the edge of the city, fire geysers suddenly popped up out of the ground and the two had to slow down so they could get past them, much to Sonic's displeasure. It was a very slow process with Sonic keeping watch over more dangers and trying to protect Eggman at the same time.

To be honest, Sonic didn't even know why Eggman had agreed to let him help him at all. He still believed this entire situation was part of some master plan of Eggman's and he would be double crossed later. But, something just didn't sit right with that idea, seeing as to how he reacted when he told him he was attacked by one of his 'bots.

Eggman would never pass up an opportunity to boast about a win over him either. Eggman was just too arrogant to keep something like that to himself. Needless to say, the entire situation was only getting Sonic more confused.

But his thoughts were interrupted as he saw Eggman spy an exit. Just beyond two fallen buildings was a small doorway that led to something white. The two then dashed towards it.

As some of the road began to crumble beneath them, Sonic grabbed Eggman's arm and pulled him into the doorway as the ground started to break completely. Narrowly making it outside as the ground fell into the fire abyss, they both let out a sigh of relief when they successfully made it out of the city.

"Glad that's over." Sonic panted as he plopped down to the ground. As he rubbed his aching legs, he gazed up at Eggman who was now staring off into the distance.

"Ya see something egghead?" Sonic asked while standing back up. But, Eggman ignored him while he continued to stare in deep thought. Sonic shrugged and sat back down to rest a bit more.

'_This place should have disappeared years ago.'_ Eggman concluded. He stole a glance at Sonic who had now had a bored look on his face as he waited for him to answer him.

It was quite funny how things had turned out. Just the other day, Dr. Eggman had been planning another one of his nefarious schemes in his base to finally rid him of Sonic forever. He had spent months building upgraded versions of his robot minions and had made plans to steal the chaos emeralds again. However, it seemed fate had another idea when it decided that the two had to work together to get out of this place.

And speaking of White Space, he still didn't have the foggiest idea of how he even got here. He remembered Sonic saying he was sent here by one his robots, but that didn't explain how _he _got there and why. Something was definitely going on and Eggman was determined to find a way out of there and find out whoever was responsible for this mess.

Suddenly, the ground started rumbling again and both rivals looked around, expecting another place to materialize beneath them. However, it seemed the next place appeared over in the distance and had created a pathway leading to it.

"What place is it now?" Sonic asked while running towards it. Eggman tried to yell at him to wait, but then groaned in annoyance when he realized Sonic didn't even hear him.

When Eggman caught back up to Sonic, he saw him tapping his foot impatiently in front of the entrance. "Do you ever slow down?" Eggman asked. Sonic only grinned and shook his head.

"Well, now that you finally made it over here, we may as well go into the next location." Sonic said as he went for the entrance. He could see metal buildings sprouting off beyond the entry way and what looked like badniks patrolling around inside.

"Wait!" Eggman yelled before he could take off again. "Why are we going back into another one of those?"

"To get out of this place remember?" Sonic explained with a shrug. "We need to go through here if we want to find a way out."

"And how exactly will going in here help us?" Eggman asked stubbornly. Frankly, Eggman didn't want to go into another one of these places ever again. He didn't see the point Sonic was trying to make and thought it would be better to further explore the outside.

Sonic face palmed. "Do you remember when we were in here last time? The only way we got further through the place was by going into the places in this world. So, if we go through all these, we should find a way out of here. At least, that's what I hope anyway."

Eggman stood in silence as contemplated over what Sonic explained. Sonic did have a point but that didn't necessarily mean he was right. But, what other choice did he have? After a few seconds of Sonic staring at him impatiently, he finally nodded. "All right. But this better help us get out of here hedgehog."

Sonic smirked at him and turned back towards the entrance. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

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**As always, thanks for the reviews and helping out with the story! Next chapter will be up soon.**


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: All characters and settings belong to Sega.

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Chapter 5

**Sega Universe: Angel Island**

When Tails, Amy, and Cream arrived at the Master Emerald, their reactions were very similar to that of Rouge and Shadow's.

Calling the Master Emerald jet black would be an understatement. The color of the jewel wasn't what was most disturbing about it though. What was worrisome was that the energy coming off it felt…wrong.

"Why is it like this?" Tails asked while walking up to it. Shadow and Rouge were standing beside Knuckles as he stood in front of the shrine crossing his arms.

"I'm not sure…" Knuckles said while staring hard at the jewel. Amy and Cream followed Tails up the steps of the shrine, their eyes still wide.

"It feels different." Cream said. She hugged Cheese who was frowning.

"How long has it been like this?" Amy asked Knuckles.

"Well…" he began. "For the past few days, the emerald has felt 'strained'."

"Strained?" Amy asked him.

"Yes. It feels like the power is being forced out of it. I can't exactly explain but, whatever force is causing this has made the emerald dark as well." Knuckles said in annoyance. He looked as if he hadn't slept in days and had large, dark bags under his eyes.

"Is it negative chaos energy?" Tails asked.

"No." Knuckles replied. "There's positive and negative chaos energy inside it. I just can't figure out why it's turned the entire emerald black. I even tried cleansing it with the chant but it's not doing anything!" Knuckles yelled out in frustration.

Rouge patted his shoulders in sympathy. "Don't worry Knuckie." She said with a wink. "We'll figure this out."

Knuckles only growled in return. Even though he and Rouge now got along a lot more than before, there were still times the two constantly bickered back and forth. But, they had learned to respect each other over the years and had gotten a lot closer recently. However, when troubling times arose, the mutual respect was often discarded in times of frustration.

"I thought Big Blue was with you guys?" Rouge asked. Tails, who had been looking at the emerald in deep thought, now had snapped out of his trance at the mention of Sonic's name. His ears dropped down and he now bore a frown.

"Well, we were actually out looking for him when you guys called." He said. "W-we think he's been kidnapped by Dr. Eggman."

"Kidnapped?!" Rouge and Knuckles both exclaimed in surprise. Shadow just raised an eyebrow.

"Y-yea." Tails continued. "We found his communicator lying on the ground near Station Square in a forest. And the whole area looked like a battle zone."

"Dr. Eggman must be behind this." Amy said suddenly in anger. "He's probably the one who stole my Sonic and did this to the Master Emerald." She then pulls out her hammer and throws it over her shoulder. "I say we go bust through his base."

"But Amy, we can't just go running in one of those unprepared!" Tails exclaimed. "If Eggman is doing this, he'll know we'll be coming and probably has a trap set for us. We need to get more information first."

"Well, we just raided through one of his bases before we came to the island." Interrupted Rouge. "Omega downloaded some files from there. Maybe we can figure out what he's planning and where Sonic is."

"Oh really Miss Rouge?" Cream said excitedly.

"Sure sweetie." Responded Rouge as she gave Cream a smile. "I'll just contact Omega to come over here with the files. I'm sure GUN has looked through them by now."

As Rouge walked away to contact Omega, Cream looked over at Shadow who hadn't said a word since they arrived. "Is something wrong Mr. Shadow?" she questioned him sweetly. Tails and Amy both snapped their heads over to where they were standing in curiosity.

"I'm fine." Shadow huffed as he turned towards the emerald. Cream just frowns in response while Amy and Tails give each other a sideways glance.

"You don't look fine." Amy replies as she walks over to him and Cream. "It might make you feel better if you open up Shadow."

Shadow doesn't reply and just gives Amy a hard stare, hoping to get her to back off. But Amy stands her ground with a stare of her own. Cream and Tails just awkwardly stand at the edge of the shrine.

"Shadow!" Rouge yelled as she flew back to the group. Cream and Tails both sigh in relief as Amy and Shadow halt their staring contest, both not wanting either mobian to get upset.

"Omega's not responding to any of my calls." Explained Rouge. "GUN also reported to me that he never made it back to headquarters as well."

"You don't think Eggman got him do you?" Cream asked fearfully.

"I don't know hun." Rouge replied. "But I think we should go check on him. I have his location set on my communicator Shadow."

Shadow just nods and takes off towards the edge of the island. Rouge waved to the rest of the group before heading off as well.

With little else to do, Tails pulls out some equipment out of the Tornado and began scanning over the Master Emerald with Knuckles. Cream and Amy decide to chip in and help out as well.

But the scan provides no other insight over what is wrong. "According to my scanner, it says everything is normal. The abnormal color isn't even seen on here. " Tails observed with a frown.

"Well, obviously everything isn't normal with the emerald pitch black." Knuckles grumbled. He was quickly losing his patience as everything Tails tried led to failure.

Before long, the sun began to set in the sky and the group decided to take a rest near the shrine. But, everyone's minds were still moving like crazy.

Tails, Amy, and Cream were still worried about the whereabouts of Sonic. Amy had contacted the Chaotix not long ago, hoping to hear of any news from the group. But, they still hadn't learned anything yet.

Knuckles, on the other hand, had the most worry out of everyone. The Master Emerald had never gone through anything like this before. He could feel the emerald's strain as the dark energy coursed the jewel and it was making him sick. Not only that, but he feared the other seven chaos emeralds could be at risk as well, seeing as how the Master Emerald provided them their power.

He also felt a little worried about Sonic. Sure, they both had fought in the past and never really did get along very well; Knuckles still had some concern about his well-being. Dr. Eggman had been quiet for way too long so he knew he must have been planning something huge. So when he combined the emerald problem and Sonic missing, he knew things were about to get complicated.

Suddenly, though, a whirring sound could be heard coming straight for the shrine. All of the mobians jumped up in surprise as a large group of shadows started to fly towards them. Knuckles immediately went on the defensive as the shadows moved closer.

"What is that?" Amy yelled.

Finally, the shadows came into full view and everyone gasped in shock as the sight of a small army of Eggman robots. They looked just like the humanoid design Team Dark had seen inside of Eggman's base and they all had their lasers pointed towards the group of mobians.

"They must be after the emerald!" Knuckles exclaimed while positioning himself on top of the emerald. Amy then pulls out her hammer and holds it over her shoulder. Cream and Tails just put their fists out in front of them.

All of the robots float just above the shrine for a few seconds before one finally decides to start the attack. Lasers then start flying from all directions as the group fends them off.

Knuckles swipes at some of the 'bots as they try and make a grab for the emerald. Amy, down below, swung her hammer into the torsos of the enemies in rage. Cream threw Cheese into one of the robots as they go to fire off more lasers, and send it crashing into the ground. Finally, Tails used his namesakes to smack into a group before they can make it to the shrine.

The battle rages on as more robots kept flying in from who knows where. Knuckles went to grab one of the robots and throw it towards the others, when he is suddenly pushed from behind and thrown clear off the emerald.

"Knuckles!" Tails yelled as he fights off more enemies. "Are you all right?"

He doesn't answer and instead runs back up the shrine steps. But before he can put in a hit to the robot that pushed him off, a loud cracking noise echoes off the trees.

Everyone froze as the ground beneath them suddenly starts to vibrate. Knuckles, who had just made it to the top of the shrine gasped in shock when he gazes at the Master Emerald.

Going right through the middle of the emerald is a large crack. More cracking noise is heard as the crack gets bigger and bigger, as the vibration gets stronger. Then, a large popping noise explodes through the air as the emerald finally breaks from the pressure of the crack.

The island then began to fall towards the surface. The army of robots, who had stopped battling when the rumbling started, fled from the battle scene. Amy, Tails, and Cream all screamed in terror as the island plummeted at a very fast pace towards the open ocean below. Everyone grabbed onto a tree to ensure their safety.

Knuckles, who was still on standing on top of the shrine in shock, fell down to the ground and held onto the stairs.

Finally, the island landed into the ocean with a giant splash. Waves of water rippled out into the sea as the island settles down into the ocean. With the rumbling ceased, the group of mobians sighed out in relief and picked themselves off the ground.

"Is everyone ok?" Amy asked as she rubbed her bruised arms. Cream and Cheese nod silently while Tails mouths a yes.

"Knuckles?" Amy asked while walking up to the shrine. The trio of mobians slowly made their way up the steps as they see Knuckles stand stock still in front of him.

When they get to the top, though, all they do is gasp in shock, as the Master Emerald is now seen broken into thousands of tiny pieces.

**Sega Universe: With Team Chaotix**

After Team Chaotix had taken up the task of finding Sonic, they had found themselves in a small Mobian village just outside Station Square after a long day of searching. Thinking someone may have seen whatever had attacked Sonic in town, the detectives made their way inside.

The village itself was very small, much like the ones near Green Hill Zone on South Island. Most of the homes were only small huts, but there were a few larger buildings scattered throughout.

Vector then began to knock on people's doors asking for any information. So far, no one had seen any attacker, nor had they seen Sonic all day. Amy had called halfway through the search asking for anything new, but they still knew nothing more.

"We didn't check this house yet." Charmy piped as he pointed towards a small, red hut at the edge of town.

The trio made their way towards the home and Vector knocks loudly on the door. Some scuffling is heard inside before the door is slowly pulled open.

A female chipmunk with dark red hair then appears in the doorway. She gasps in surprise at the sight of the three detectives in front of her.

"Excuse me ma'am." Vector began. "But, you wouldn't happen to have seen any robots fly by here have you?"

"Vector?" the chipmunk asked. Two other voices are heard from the background as they hear their friend speak.

"The Chaotix are in this dimension?" a male voice is heard from behind the chipmunk.

"I'm sorry ma'am but we're kind of in a hurry." Vector replied as Espio and Charmy look at the woman in front of them in confusion. "We're looking for Sonic the Hedgehog and he may be in trouble. If there's anything you know, we'd appreciate it."

"Sugah-hog's in trouble?" a southern accented female voice exclaimed from inside. Suddenly, a male walrus and a female rabbit appeared in the doorway beside the chipmunk.

"You guys know Sonic?" Espio asks while walking up beside Vector.

"Whoa is that a robot arm?" Charmy asked the rabbit excitedly. "That's so cool!"

"Charmy! Stop being rude!" Vector demanded while trying not to stare at the rabbit's robotic limbs. The rabbit sheepishly smiled.

"Maybe I should explain in-"the chipmunk is suddenly cut off when a loud boom is heard just outside. The Chaotix and the others snapped their heads in surprise and turn behind them.

It seemed Eggman had decided to attack the village today and brought some of his new humanoid robots to test out. Mobians from all over the town fled for their lives as the 'bots scooped them up and put them in giant capsule shaped cages.

"Whoa, I haven't seen Eggman use those in years!" Vector said as he ran towards the chaos. Espio and Charmy quickly followed and the trio began attacking the robots.

As more mobians were being stuffed inside, Espio threw a shuriken at the robot and sends it exploding all over the ground. He then ran over to the cage and stepped onto the mechanism to free the trapped mobians.

Meanwhile, Vector and Charmy team up to take out more 'bots over on the other side of town. Some of the mobians that had been captured were already being taken away and Vector was trying to free them.

"They're getting away!" Vector exclaimed. He leaped toward one of the capsules and bounced on top before it could be lifted off the ground. The robot guarding the machine immediately fired off lasers at Vector, but he simply dodged them and punched the 'bot in the torso.

Now with the guard out of the way, Vector freed the frightened people and turned his attention to the next capsule. But, something caught his eye as he went to turn around.

Just a few feet from him, Charmy was fending off some robots of his own, but wasn't paying attention to what was behind him. Vector saw one of the robots aim it's laser directly for Charmy.

"Charmy look out!" Vector yelled desperately. Charmy, who had just finished tackling down one of the enemies, briefly turned around as the robot shot its laser. Vector hastily dashed toward Charmy, trying to save him.

However, before the shot could reach him, Charmy was suddenly scooped off the ground by something metal and the shot narrowly missed him by inches.

"You okay hun?" the rabbit from the hut said. Charmy, who had closed his eyes in fear, opened them up in surprise.

"Hey, you're the girl with the cool robot arm!" Charmy exclaimed excitedly.

"Heh, sure am sugah." She said with a laugh. "Now let me show you what this arm can do."

With that that said, she placed Charmy safely on the ground and used her robotic arm to fire off lasers of her own. Vector, who saw the entire event, had his jaw dropped to the ground.

The chipmunk and walrus from before suddenly made an appearance beside Espio and began to help them attack the robots.

The Chaotix, who were surprised over the sudden appearance, quickly regained themselves and continued their assault. With the help, it wasn't long before they managed to free all the trapped mobians and made the robots flee.

"Yay we did it!" Charmy exclaimed while he held his fists into the air. The rabbit, walrus, and chipmunk that had helped, had now returned from their battle positions and ran back to the Chaotix.

"Hey, thanks for the help back there!" Vector said to the rabbit.

"Aw, it was no problem sugah." She replied with a smile.

"If you don't mind me asking, just who exactly are you?" Espio asked the group of mobians. The trio stared at each other before the chipmunk answers.

"Well, I'm Sally Acorn." The chipmunk said. "And these are my fellow Freedom Fighters Bunnie and Rotor."

"Freedom Fighters?" Vector questioned them. Sally just smiled before answering.

"I think it would be easier to explain to everyone at once." She said simply. The Chaotix only stared at her in confusion.

"Do you guys happen to know where Sonic and Tails are?" Rotor asked. "We really need to talk to them."

"Well, sorry to say guys, but it's impossible to talk to Sonic right now." Vector explained. "You see, we were actually looking for him when we came into town. He's missing. But, I can take you to Tails and the others."

"Wait." Espio suddenly says. "Are you sure we can trust them Vector?" he whispered to him. "They seem…different."

"Hey, if they are against Eggman I don't see why not." Vector bellowed. "Besides, we never turn down any potential customers." Vector chimed while Espio just shook his head.

"Well, they're up on Angel Island so I'll have to ask Tails to come pick us up." Vector explained as he walked away. Charmy and Espio just awkwardly stood in front of the trio until he returned.

"Something wrong?" Espio asked when he saw the face of his friend. Vector bore a worried expression as he trudged back over to them. He turned toward his fellow companions before answering.

"We may have a slight problem."

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**As always, thanks for the reviews, follows, and favorites! **


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

**Archie Universe: With Sonic**

Everything felt heavy. Sonic tried to run through the thick darkness but, the dark tentacles coming from the ground kept pulling him back further into the black abyss behind him.

He didn't know how long he had been here, but he knew he needed to get out soon. A soft voice kept echoing in the back of his mind, sounding desperate. He couldn't understand their words though.

His mind seemed to be forcing him to keep moving forward. Slowly, dark figures emerged through the endless, black mist. They seemed to resemble trees. The floor then begun to smoothen out, creating a stone pathway straight in front of him.

However, as he dashed forward, he was hit with a large force of dread. It became increasingly difficult to maneuver through on the path, as if the dread was creating a physical wall to keep him out. Thankfully, though, the soft voice speaking to him seemed to weaken the dread to some extent, so he could force his way forward.

As he ran, more voices started to whimper around him. The voices were filled with fear and seemed to sound like several small children all crying out. Their words were masked under the darkness, though, so Sonic couldn't understand them, as well as the other soft voice that still echoed in his mind.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, stone steps appeared in the distance. When Sonic approached them, he swiftly made his way up them. But, he only managed to get halfway up before the echo of voices exploded all around them.

Sonic covered his ears in a desperate attempt to block them out. His head started to pound furiously as he staggered backwards, the feeling of dread returning almost tenfold of what it was before. However, an unknown power forced him to fight through the chaos and back up the steps.

The climb was a great struggle and Sonic barely made it the top before he collapsed at the edge. The whimpers still dug into his mind, all filled with deep sadness. As he tried to lift his head, the dark tentacles returned and latched onto his arms. Sonic struggled to get free but found he was now paralyzed in the grip.

As the darkness dragged him further, a harsh white light suddenly burst in front of him. The darkness immediately retreated from him, fleeing back into the ground. Feeling abruptly flowed back into his body as the light blinded his sight and the sadness had disappeared.

As the light stayed in place, Sonic slowly stood up. He placed a hand in front of his face, trying to make out what had saved him. The voices from before had now ceased and the light now started to blink, as if it was trying to tell him something. When he finally could make out what the light was, Sonic gasped as he saw a small figure directly in the light.

He went to speak up to the figure, but he was suddenly thrown backwards onto the ground as the feeling of dread pounced back onto him. Sonic cried out as the dark tentacles returned once more and smothered him. He thrashed around violently, desperately trying to escape. But, it was no use, as the darkness had now completely overtaken him.

Still flinging his arms and legs, Sonic heard a voice yell out his name. "Sonic!" The black abyss around him made him feel like he was drifting in water, and made the voice sound muffled. As he begun to get tired from flailing around, he closed his eyes in exhaustion. But, the voice urged him to stay awake as it got louder. Finally, though, one of the screams broke through the wall around him, thus freeing Sonic from his prison.

"SONIC!" The force of the yell caused Sonic to break free of the darkness's grip permanently and he bolted up. While holding out his hands in a defensive position, he failed to realize that the blackness had disappeared and he was now in a small room.

His eyes flew open instantly when he heard a familiar yelp from beside him. He quickly snapped his head to the side, still a little freaked out by the recent event, and his eyes widened in shock when he saw Tails standing by him. Sonic quickly glanced around the room, now realizing he was now laying in one of the huts in town.

After staring at Tails for a few more seconds, Sonic glanced down and saw he was lying in a bed. The sheets on it were now tangled around his legs, making him realize he must have thrashed around in his sleep from the dream. He assumed that was why Tails was now looking at him uncertainly.

"…Sonic?" Tails asked him fearfully. "Are…are you ok?"

Sonic stared at him in silence before his mouth finally managed to form words. "W-what happened?" He asked while trying to move his mind from the weird dream he just had.

Tails cautiously moved towards him, unsure of what to make of the situation. "You don't remember?"

"Remember what?" Sonic questioned with a confused face. He put a hand on his now aching head and gingerly rubbed it. But, he jumped in surprise when he felt smooth bandages on the top of his head. "…Did I get hurt or something?"

"Is everything ok?" A male voice asked from outside the door. The door opened to reveal Uncle Chuck and he had a concerned look on his face. "I heard someone screaming."

"I think so." Tails responded while giving Sonic a sideways glance. "I think Sonic was just having a bad or something."

"How you feeling sonny-boy?" Uncle Chuck asked Sonic. "You got hit in the head pretty hard."

"Ugh, well I do have a killer headache, now that you mention it." Sonic replied, thankful for someone distracting him from his nightmare. He decided to push it in the back of his mind and instead focus on the current situation. "Can you tell me what happened? Last thing I remember was going to get a bite to eat."

Tails looked over at Uncle Chuck, seeming to be silently asking him of what to say. Thankfully, though, Chuck already knew how to handle the situation.

"Well, I think that's a good place to start." Chuck responded while he pulled up a chair and sat down. Tails followed suit. Sonic saw that they both looked uncomfortable. '_Something big must have happened.' _He thought.

"You see, not long after you and Tails came into the diner, there was a massive earthquake. Just came out of nowhere." Chuck said as he crossed his arms.

"Wait, this earthquake wouldn't be connected to that device we found would it?" Sonic interrupted.

"I'll get to that." Chuck answered. Tails shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "You see, the earthquake caused the ceiling to collapse in the diner and you got hit in the head pretty hard. You've been out for quite some time."

"We were pretty worried about you Sonic." Tails added as he stared at the ground.

"Ah, well that explains the headache." Sonic stated. "But, there's more?" he guessed from the looks Tails and his uncle had on their faces.

"Unfortunately." Chuck said with a worried expression. "I really hate to tell you this but…something's happened to Sally, Rotor, and Bunnie."

Sonic stared at him in surprise. He went to open his mouth but Tails cut him off before he could get a word in. "Don't worry Sonic! They weren't captured by Eggman or anything like that."

"Then what do you mean something happened to them?" Sonic demanded. "Did they get hurt?"

"No, the last time we talked to them they were perfectly fine." Chuck said. Sonic put on another confused face before he continued. "You see, they were…teleported. When the earthquake happened, Sally, Rotor, and Bunnie were all in the headquarters near the device you all retrieved from Robotropolis. But, something activated on it when the earthquake occurred. We don't know exactly how it happened but, Sally and the others were somehow teleported to another dimension."

"Wait, then when did you guys talk to them?" Sonic asked as he tried to wrap his head around the past events.

"We were able to contact them for a brief time after they were sent away." Tails answered. "Uncle Chuck and Nicole were only able to tell them what had happened before their communications went down."

"Nicole has been trying to connect back to them but hasn't been successful as of yet. She assumed all of their communicators must have been damaged during the teleportation."

"But, that doesn't make any sense!" Sonic exclaimed. "Why would Eggman teleport them to some random dimension and not to Robotropolis?"

"We were wondering the same thing actually." A female voiced said from the other side of the bed. Everyone snapped their heads toward the voice and all saw that Nicole had materialized in the room. "Sorry to intrude but I really need your help back at headquarters." She said as she motioned her hand to Uncle Chuck.

"Hold on, what about Sally and the others?" Sonic asked as he moved to get out of bed. However, Tails placed a hand over him before he could get off.

"Nicole and Uncle Chuck are working on right now Sonic." Tails stated. "But, Doctor Quack said you're going to need to rest because you have a concussion."

"Don't worry sonny-boy. We'll figure more out while you rest. It won't do us any good until we figure out more about the problem." Uncle Chuck said as he gave Sonic a sympathetic smile. He then waved a goodbye to the boys and left the hut.

Sonic and Tails were then left alone for the rest of the night. Tails slowly sat in the chair Uncle Chuck left as Sonic sighed loudly. He looked pretty upset that he had to rest.

"I can't believe this!" Sonic suddenly exclaimed. "Sally, Bunnie, and Rote' could be hurt and I have to stay and _'rest'_."

"Sonic, I know how much you don't like sitting around but, there's not anything we can do right now." Tails assured him. Sonic didn't answer him and chose to sit and pout. "Aw, come on Sonic. First thing tomorrow, we can go straight over there and help."

"I don't need to rest." Sonic stated. "Resting isn't going to bring them back. We need to take action."

Tails just sighed in response and shook his head. Sonic continued to cross his arms and stared angrily out the window.

They continued to sit in silence for a time before Tails finally decided to break the silence with a question. "Hey Sonic?" he asked. Sonic, who had seemed to be calmed down, gave him a sideways glance.

"Hm?" Sonic replied as he continued to stare outside. Tails looked down uncomfortably.

"Um…well…I was just wondering…what your dream was about?" Tails stuttered as he continued to look down at the ground. Sonic immediately snapped his head towards Tails in surprise.

"Oh." Sonic said as he scratched the back of his head. "It really wasn't anything." He lied. To be honest, Sonic had no idea what to make of his dream. He just kept telling himself it was some random nightmare he had. But, why did it seem like it was real? He deliberated whether he should tell Tails or not as he stole a glance at him.

"O-oh ok." Tails replied shakily. He knew Sonic didn't really like talking about such things as this so, he didn't want to push the information out of him. He looked back up and noticed Sonic now looking down at his hands. He quickly looked up when he noticed Tails's stare.

"Don't worry about it Tails." Sonic told him while giving him a small smile. "I know you're worried about it but, I promise I'm fine."

Tails stared at him for a bit, trying to make sure Sonic really did feel ok, before he finally answered. "Ok Sonic." He said with a smile. "As long as you still feel like yourself."

Sonic just grinned in response and rubbed Tails on his head. As the night lingered on, Tails eventually crawled into bed with Sonic and began to fall asleep beside him. Sonic placed a blanket over him softly before looking back out the window.

Even though Sonic assured Tails he was fine, there was still something that continued to bother him, much to his displeasure. He wasn't sure if it was because of the fact his friends could be in trouble, or if it was the dream. The feeling of dread had still stayed when he woke up, however, and it was making him feel strange. However, both boys ended up dozing off after some time.

New Mobotropolis was completely silent as the night lingered, save for Nicole and Uncle Chuck back at headquarters, who were still working hard to contact their friends. As the light from the stars in the sky shone down on the city, though, no one seemed to notice tiny, slithers of white light sneak its way all over the city and disappear into the shadows below…

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**Heh, sorry for the wait. Next chapter should be up sooner unless something comes up. As always, thanks for the reviews, follows, and favs. See ya next chapter!**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

**White Space**

Upon entering the next location, Sonic and Eggman both stood in surprise as they gazed at their surroundings.

The entire area was covered in metallic buildings and steel ground. Long, dark blue pipes were littered around while dumping polluted water onto the ground. There were also what looked like to be palm trees sprouted into the metal. However, the natural leaves on the trees had been replaced with brown, non-organic metal plants.

The gloomy sky loomed over the two rivals as they continued to stare. "What is this place doing here?!" Sonic exclaimed in shock. Dr. Eggman rubbed his chin in deep thought.

"Palmtree Panic..." Eggman mumbled.

The last time either people had seen this place was several years ago back on Little Planet. Dr. Eggman had managed to capture the entire planet and sought out magical artifacts, the Time Stones, so he could change time as he saw fit.

But, Sonic was able to stop his nefarious plot by taking the time zones for himself and repairing the future Eggman had remade in his image.

However, that meant that this future, dubbed the 'bad future' by Sonic at the time, should have been erased.

Something suddenly clicked in Eggman's mind as he began to realize what had been happening the them. "I think I understand now." he said out loud. Sonic glanced over at him.

"Understand what?" he asked as he scratched the back of his head. "Why this place still exists?"

"I don't know why I didn't catch this before." Eggman stated with excitement. His mind reeled at the newly found out information. "It's because of White Space."

"Huh?" Sonic asked, now really confused.

"White Space is why these places are still here." Eggman continued. "Don't you see? I assumed White Space only existed because the Time Eater created it. But, the real explanation must be that it had always existed."

"You're not making any sense egghead." Sonic told him as he tapped his foot impatiently. "Just get to the point."

"Just listen rodent!" Eggman snapped. "This whole area, all of white space, is simply a void of things lost from time. That city we were just in? It must have been have a place erased from the time line, just like this future of Palmtree Panic."

"But, if that's true, why didn't we recognize Crisis City? I mean we remembered about this future..." Sonic asked as trailed off in thought.

"The only logical explanation is that we all must have forgot going there." Eggman answered. "It wouldn't be here otherwise."

"I see." Sonic answered as he crossed his arms. Honestly, the whole time line mumbo-jumbo Eggman was talking about was something Tails would understand more than him. But, he did, at least, get why all these places were here now. That still didn't explain how to get out of the place though.

However, being the impatient person he was, Sonic was done standing around and wanted to get a move on. "Well, let's go on through here shall we?" he asked. Eggman stood still for a little longer before he briefly turned towards Sonic, giving him a small nod.

Since the area was covered in Eggman's traps from before, Sonic and Eggman navigated very carefully through the horde of badniks near the entrance. Since Eggman was unable to defend himself at the moment, Sonic was, once again, forced to protect him until they passed through.

Sonic spin dashed through a few mosquito looking badniks as he came across some floating platforms. Still barreling down the path, some butterfly bots popped out from the wall and swarmed towards Sonic at full speed. But, he easily sliced through them with a homing attack.

As he neared a series of waterfalls, giant water bug bots approached him as he leaped over the pools of water below. Using them to his advantage, Sonic used his homing attack to save him some time from dodging the falls.

Finally, he came across one last chasm and effortlessly hopped past it. Striking a victory pose, he looked behind him as Eggman finally caught back up to him. Sonic raised an eyebrow, surprised Eggman was able to make it past all those obstacles without asking him for help.

"Don't see an exit anywhere." Sonic said as he searched around. "Ya see anything?" he asked Eggman as he turned towards him.

However, Eggman wasn't listening as he seemed to have found something lying on the ground behind them.

"Find something?" Sonic asked as he walked over to Eggman. The doctor had now stepped behind one of the metal plants on the ground and gasped in excitement.

"It's the EGG-HVC-001!" he exclaimed as Sonic glanced down at said device in surprise.

Lying on the ground was a red and grey steel machine that Eggman had built during the time stone fiasco. It had one of Eggman's Eggmobiles on top, while a bipedal mech was attached to the bottom. , The feet were also covered in spikes. Overall, the machine seemed to be almost entirely intact, except for the arms, which had two broken bobbins on the ends.

Pulling out some tools from his belt, Eggman immediately went to work on repairing the machine. "Why are you fixing that old thing?" Sonic asked in confusion.

"Well, Sonic, it could be useful if it were fixed." Eggman answered as he busily fixed up the device.

"Oh, you mean you can use that to defend yourself so I won't have to?" Sonic asked teasingly. Eggman, merely huffed in response and continued to make more adjustments.

Eventually, Sonic got tired of watching him and laid down for a quick rest. But, not long after he laid down, he was awakened to the ground shaking beside him. Sonic abruptly bolted up, caught off guard by the sudden interruption.

Now standing near him was the HVC machine Eggman had found some time ago. But, it appeared to have acquired some upgrades when it was fixed. Instead of the bobbins that used to be on the hands, Eggman had now used the leftover parts to make a set of pinchers on each hand. The feet now had spikes on both the front and back of them, and the steel also looked sleeker, making it appear newer.

Sonic whistled as he caught sight of it. "Looks pretty snazzy egghead." he said as he stretched his head back to look at his rival.

Eggman merely smirked at Sonic's remark and activated the hands, testing them out. "This design is much more efficient than the old version."

"Well, let's hope so you can defend yourself now." Sonic snorted. "So, now that you fixed your toy, any ideas of where to go next?"

Unfortunately, a visible exit was nowhere to be seen as the two traversed through the rest of the terrain. In the distance, miles of land spread as far as they eye could see. It kinda reminded them of the endless emptiness of White Space.

Finally, after a few hours of dodging more obstacles and defeating more badniks, the two decided to take a break on one of the hills in the area. Sonic sighed loudly as he plopped down to the ground and lied down on his back on the ground. Eggman, on the other hand, stayed in his mech and went to work on some more adjustments to the machine.

"I don't get it." Sonic said as he crossed his arms and put them behind his head. "Shouldn't an exit have appeared by now?"

"Perhaps it's hidden." Eggman replied as he tweaked at his mech. "Or perhaps there is something we missed? Who really knows how things work here."

"Maybe.." Sonic said as he trailed off. It still felt awkward working with Eggman and Sonic still felt like he needed to be on his guard around him. Sonic kept glancing back up at his rival, anticipating an ambush at any second.

However, an attack never came and Eggman climbed down from the machine and sat on the ground. Sonic continued to eye him as Eggman stifled a yawn. He then propped himself against the foot of his machine, making sure not to lay on the sides with the spikes, and relaxed.

Awkward silence followed as the two rivals laid down on the ground, both looking down. To be honest, the two rivals had never had an opportunity to relax around each other. There was always some battle taking up the time to do so or they were either too busy making witty remarks to each other. Things seemed to always be on the move and time never slowed down in the heat of battle.

But, now that the two were forced to take things slow for the time being, neither knew what to do. Eventually, the two silently came to the decision to just get some rest for the rest of the journey. Since time didn't seem to pass through the areas in White Space, it was still morning when they awoke from their slumber.

Stretching his limbs, Sonic yawned loudly as Eggman climbed back into his mech. Preparing for more travel, Eggman looked down at the mech, seeming to be deep in thought, and didn't see the sudden appearance of something dark in the distance.

However, Sonic spied it while Eggman was busy with his machine. He put a hand over his eyes, trying to block out the sunlight so he could get a better view at what was in the distance. But, there was no need, as the dark figure suddenly snapped towards him at breakneck speed.

Sonic was caught off guard as the figure appeared directly in front of him and, quite literally, slithered on the ground in a dark puddle.

"What the-" Sonic began before he was interrupted by the puddle, who now was morphing into a person.

Eggman, now noticing the new arrival of the figure, went on the defensive as the puddle slowly morphed into it's new form.

Now standing in front of them, a purple, crystallized hedgehog with dark, green eyes appeared on the ground and bore a sinister smile. A sense of dread seemed to leak from him as he took a step towards the two.

"Who are you?" Sonic demanded the figure. The person chuckled at his remark, seeming to not feel at all threatened.

"I must say you two are fun to observe." he said with his smile turning into a smirk. Eggman felt a sense of familiarity towards the being, feeling like he had seen him before. "Running around as if you have any hope of getting out of here."

"What are talking about?" Sonic questioned while he gritted his teeth. His eyes followed the being as he continued to step towards Sonic.

He now stood right in front of Sonic, looking to try and intimidate him by standing so close. But, Sonic stood his ground and stared right into his eyes. "It's a pity I never met you directly before now Sonic." he stated.

"Stop messing around!" Sonic yelled, a little confused over the fact the figure knew his name. "I asked who you were." He glared at the being, eyes never moving from his target, before the being suddenly started to laugh at his remark once more.

"If you must know, I'm Mephiles, Mephiles the Dark! What, did you forget me?" he answered while holding out his hands. A sphere of dark energy appeared in his palm and Sonic immediately jumped back.

"We can't remember someone we never met." Eggman said for the first time since meeting Mephiles. "Just what is it you want?"

"No need to be so impatient." Mephiles answered as he continued to hold the sphere of dark energy in his palm. "You have all the time in the world here. There's no need to rush."

"Well, unlike you, we actually have places to be." Sonic snapped at him. For some reason, Sonic felt extremely uneasy around Mephiles and couldn't understand why. Normally, enemies he's encountered in the past haven't made him feel so on guard. Something about him screamed familiar as well, however, no matter how hard he tried to remember, he still couldn't figure out where he had seen him. The feeling was a lot like how he felt when he saw Crisis City again.

"Surely you have time to play a simple game?" Mephiles replied with another smirk. "Especially if it involves a certain jewel." Suddenly, the dark energy in his hand sparked and flashed a bright light to reveal the red chaos emerald. Sonic and Eggman gasped in surprise.

"How did you get that?" Eggman questioned him. Mephiles continued to smirk as he levitated the emerald in front of them.

"That doesn't matter." Mephiles answered. "What matters is that you two may need this, correct?" he chuckled again at Sonic's and Eggman's faces, confirming his suspicions. "Tell you what, you guys can have it, on one condition."

"How about we skip your little game and you hand us over the emerald instead?" Sonic said as he prepared an attack. However, Mephiles threw out his other hand and opened up a black portal behind him.

"If you can catch me, I'll hand over the emerald. Sound fair?" Mephiles asked as he backed away into the portal. Sonic dashed towards him, trying to catch him before he slipped away, but was too late as Mephiles had already went inside.

Sonic then turned towards Eggman. "C'mon! We gotta follow him! That emerald could be our ticket out of here!" He then jumped inside the portal, leaving Eggman to stand in annoyance in front of the portal alone.

"Can that hedgehog not stop and think for one second?" he mumbled before he heading towards the portal. He stood in front of it and sighed loudly before shoving the controls forward and disappearing into the black abyss.

The two rivals had then both traveled inside, leaving Palmtree Panic behind as the portal closed behind them...

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**As always, thanks for the reviews, follows, and favs!  
**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: All characters and settings belong to Sega.**

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Chapter 8

**Sega Universe: Angel Island**

Team Chaotix and Sally's group arrived at Angel Island via a boat from the mainland as soon as they heard the news from Tails.

Since Tails and the others were occupied with their own problems as the moment, Vector swiftly thought of another method there and hurriedly got everyone to the shrine in no time. However, no one quite realized the extent of the problem until they saw the Master Emerald.

Thousands of tiny pieces of green shards were scattered all over the shrine. Even though the Master Emerald had broken in the past, the shards were never this small. They were always big enough to easily put back together. But, now you could hardly see the pieces as they hid in the grass and on the steps. For the emerald to break like this, everyone knew something was seriously wrong.

"You weren't kidding when you said the thing broke Tails." Vector said with wide eyes. Espio, Charmy, Sally, Bunnie, and Rotor all followed closely behind him as he slowly walked up to the shrine, all in complete awe.

Amy, Cream, and Tails looked at the group in confusion as they came towards them. "Oh, hello." Cream greeted them. "Are you new friends of the Chaotix?"

"Um, not exactly." Sally answered. "But, were hoping you all can help us out."

"Who are you guys?" Amy asked as her head tilted to the side. "I don't think I've seen you guys before."

"Is there anywhere we can go sit and talk. It's a really long story." Sally said as she gazed past them. She spied Knuckles and slightly frowned, as she could see him frantically trying to collect all the pieces of the now broken emerald. "Also, maybe you could explain how that happened."

"Well, we're not even sure ourselves." Tails said as he scratched the back of his head. "But, we can go into Knuckles's hut."

He motioned for them to follow, leaving the Chaotix and Knuckles behind. Vector, who was watching Knuckles pick up the pieces in frustration, slowly made his way up to him. "Uh, Knuckles?"

Knuckles, however, gave no reply, and continued with what his was doing before. Vector, therefore, tried again to get his attention. "Knuckles, come on. I know the emerald is broken and everything, but I think-"

"Broken?!" Knuckles yelled while cutting him off. He snapped his body towards Vector swiftly as Vector immediately took a step back from him. "It's more than just broken! We could be talking about permanent damage here and I'm the only one who seems to care in the slightest!"

"Hey, everyone else is worried about this too." Vector said as he tried to reason with the enraged echidna.

"Apparently not seeing as I'm the only one trying to pick all these pieces up!" Knuckles exclaimed. Espio and Charmy stood a little behind Vector, their faces in frowns.

"Knuckles, I can bet everyone will help you fix this problem. I know this a big deal and all..." Vector trailed off as he glanced back at Knuckles who was glaring at him.

"This is more than a big deal! The Master Emerald was my responsibility and I just let it get shattered by those robots." explained Knuckles as he balled his fists to his side. "I can't just sit here and do nothing!"

Now realizing the real reason Knuckles was so upset, Vector walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "There's no need to beat yourself up for this. You and I both know who's most likely responsible for this." he started. Knuckles said nothing and stared at the ground. "How about you calm down for a little bit and come inside with the others? We need to figure things out and I'm sure Tails and the others will be able to solve this problem."

Knuckles, who seemed to have calmed down a bit, looked up at Vector and just nodded his head in reply.

"Don't worry Knuckles!" Charmy exclaimed as he buzzed over to him and Vector. "We'll help you out!"

Knuckles gave no reply and just walked toward the hut in silence. The Chaotix just stared after him with frowns before following him inside.

When they finally caught back up to the other group of mobians, they saw that everyone was seated at the small table in the kitchen. The hut itself was very small, only having a bedroom, kitchen, and small den. So, it was a little cramped when everyone was inside one of the rooms.

Sally and the others quickly glanced at them when they arrived and waited for them get settled before they finally started to talk.

"Ok, now that everyone is here, mind telling us who you guys are?" Amy questioned them first.

"Well, my name is Sally Acorn and these are my fellow freedom fighters Bunnie and Rotor." Sally began.

"What's a freedom fighter?" Charmy interrupted. Vector glanced over at him in a disapproving look but Charmy acted oblivious as he awaited a response.

"A freedom fighter is...well...a person who is against Dr. Eggman's plans of world domination." Sally answered him. She got a few awkward stares before someone finally said something.

"Since when did groups form for that?" Vector asked. "I mean, usually Sonic stops whatever plans the doc has before it gets too out of hand."

"Since Dr. Eggman took over most of the world." Sally said bluntly. Now, everyone stared at her in confusion.

"...What are you talking about?" Tails asked. "Just where are you guys from?" No one was quite sure to think of these newcomers but their answers weren't exactly helping them earn a good first impression.

"Are you guys aware of other Zones? Or dimensions if you prefer to call them that." Sally asked to Tails.

Tails briefly thought it over before he answered."...You mean like the Sol dimension?" Tails answered.

"Exactly!" exclaimed Sally. "And you know how it's parallel to this dimension?" Tails slowly nodded his way, unsure of where she was going with this. "Well, where we are all from is from another dimension that is parallel to this one."

Everyone's eyes widened in shock at her words. However, Tails had a different reaction as he eyes instantly lit up in excitement. "Wait, are you telling me there are other dimensions that are like ours?"

"You have no idea." mumbled Rotor from the other end of the table.

"There are tons of dimensions like that, probably too many for you to count. And we are from one of those." Sally stated.

Tails suddenly grinned in excitement. "I can't believe it! There's always been theories of these types of things of existing but no one has ever seen one! Just think of the-"

"Now just wait one minute." Knuckles grumbled while cutting Tails off. "You expect us to believe that you all from some parallel universe? Do you know how crazy that sounds?!"

"Well, we have seen stranger things happen Knuckles." Vector stated. The others nodded their heads in response.

"We don't even know if we can trust them! They could be lying for all we know. Or, they could be the ones that did this to the Master Emerald!" Knuckles accused the group. "They don't even have proof."

"Actually, we can prove it." Sally said with a smile. She wasn't surprised at the reactions she was getting for the group and thankfully thought ahead. "If you can help us fix our communicator," Sally pulls out her communicator from underneath the table. "then we can contact our friends and prove we are from where I said we are from."

"That shouldn't be a problem." Tails said as he got up to grab some tools. "I can have it fixed in no time."

"How did you guys even get here anyways?" Amy asked Sally.

"Well, we're not too sure ourselves." she answered. She then explains the events of their world, starting with those energy signatures they picked up and how they retrieved the machine from Eggman, as Tails fixed the device at the table.

It's discovered that when the device they found in Robotropolis activated, Sally and the others were transported to this dimension. When they arrived, the had all awoken in a hut in the town the Chaotix found them in and had a brief conversation with Nicole explaining where they were. However, the communicator was so damaged that it broke midway through contact.

"Since we've been to other dimensions before, we assumed there would be someone who could help us out, usually our other dimensional counterparts." Sally explained to the group.

"...Wow." Amy said after a bit of silence. "Sounds like things are pretty complicated in your world I take it?"

"I think that would be an understatement." Rotor answered.

"So, are all of us in your dimension?" Vector asked. "You guys seemed to recognize us when we met."

"As a matter of fact, yes." Sally said. "Although you all look a little different than the ones in our world."

Before anyone else could ask anything more, Tails suddenly let his tools clang to the the table.

"It's finished!" he exclaimed proudly. "It should work perfectly now."

"Thanks for fixin' it sugah." Bunnie told him. Tail just scratched the back of his head in response while Sally activated the device. Everyone awaited patiently for her to turn it on, however Knuckles, who still didn't trust the newcomers, only glared forward.

"Nicole are you there?" Sally asked into the screen. There was a bit of static before the screen finally cleared out to reveal a female lynx's face on the screen.

"Sally!" she exclaimed excitedly. "Are you all ok? I've been trying to contact you for a few days."

"Yes. All of us are all right Nicole." Sally answered with a smile. Turning the communicator in the middle of the table, she allowed Tails and the others to see into the screen. "We met up with this dimension's counterparts of the Chaotix, Tails, Amy, and Knuckles for help fixing the communicator."

"Hello!" everyone said to Nicole. Knuckles remained silent however.

"Hold on while I tell the others you all are ok." Nicole said. A few beeping noises are heard in the background. "They should be here in just a few seconds."

Tails and the others looked at her in confusion, not seeing how she told anyone without actually leaving the screen. However, before anyone could ask about it, a blue blur of wind appears in the background, along with another orange blur shortly behind it.

"Hey guys!" a voice said. Nicole backs away from the screen to reveal Sonic and Tails of Sally's dimension. But, Sally gasps in surprise when she sees Sonic.

"Sonic, what did you do to your head?" Sally asked in concern. Sonic was still wearing a few bandages on his head from his injury.

"Oh, well there was an earthquake Sally!" says archie Tails. "We were eating in Uncle Chuck's Diner and Sonic got hit in the head by some of the roof." he frowns slightly but quickly puts back on a smile. "But, he's okay! Doctor Quack said he only had a slight concussion."

"Doctor Quack?" Vector mumbled to Espio. He only shrugs his shoulders in reply.

"That earthquake wouldn't be connected with that device we had would it?" Rotor asked Nicole.

"Unfortunately, it was Rotor." Nicole responds. "Not only that, but it appears those natural disasters that were popping up before have returned, only this time much more frequent."

"What does this machine look like?" sega Tails asked Nicole.

"Here it is." a male voice said in the background. Everyone saw a door open to reveal a middle aged blue hedgehog; and in his hands was the said device. "Glad to see you all are all right."

"Thanks Uncle Chuck." Sally answered. "So, have you guys been able to figure anything out from the machine?

"Unfortunately, we haven't discovered much." Chuck answered. "All we know is that those natural disasters that were occurring have now continued to be more frequent than before, as Nicole explained. And we keep picking up those strange energy signatures from all over."

"Strange energy signatures?" sega Tails asked. "What do you mean?"

"We're not sure." Chuck said. "All we know is that are very similar to the chaos energies."

"Would you be able to show me the readings?" sega Tails asked.

"Sure." Nicole answered while pulling up some charts on screen. Sega Tails immediately gasped as he recognized the said energy signatures.

"That's exactly the same as the chaos emerald energy here!" sega Tails exclaimed. He frowned, however, as he realized something though."Hold on, I thought you said it was similar though? From what I see, it's exactly the same..."

"Wait, you're saying that energy is the chaos energy in your dimension?" Nicole asked with a frown. Suddenly, some more charts were put up on the screen right beside the other ones. She then placed the new ones right over the old charts, revealing a small difference between the two. "Then what you're telling me is that this energy we've been picking up is usually found in your dimension?"

"But if it is, how did it end up in your guy's dimension?" Amy asked. "Shouldn't it be here?"

"I can only think of one explanation." Chuck stated. Everyone glanced in his direction. "Whatever Dr. Eggman is planning, he's seems to be dragging both of our dimensions into his scheme."

"Do you think that's why the Master Emerald was like that?" Cream asked as she held Cheese close to her.

"What about the Master Emerald?" Sonic asked from the background.

"It's shattered." Knuckles answered suddenly. Nicole, Uncle Chuck, and the archie Sonic and Tails all widened their eyes in surprise.

"Can't you just put the pieces back together though?" Sonic asked. "I know the Knuckles here was able to do that."

"Well, normally I could." Knuckles said with a glare. He had seemed to start to trust the newcomers after listening to the conversation in silence. "But, the problem is that it broke into who knows how many pieces. I can't just put them together as easily as before if I can't even see half of them on the ground."

"I wouldn't doubt that the Master Emerald in your world is connected with the events in ours then." Chuck said. "Has there been anything else happening that's out of the ordinary?"

"The Sonic in this world seems to be missing." Rotor added. "I know the Chaotix mentioned something about it..."

"What happened to him?" archie Tails asked in concern.

"We're not sure." sega Tails answered with a frown. "We found his communicator lying o the ground in the forest. And the entire area was ripped to pieces. We were thinking Eggman may have got him but we don't know for sure."

"And we know Sonic would never let himself get captured that easily." Amy said. "Eggman must have something really powerful if he was able to take him down."

"And that thing is most likely the chaos emeralds." sega Tails stated with a frown. "I knew we should have went out and found them when they scattered..."

"What are we going to do then?" Amy asked. "Sally, Bunnie, and Rotor are stuck here, there's chaos energy from our world in another dimension, the master emerald is shattered, and Sonic is missing. We need a plan."

"Well, Nicole and I have been trying to figure out a way to send Sally and the others back here." Chuck said. "However, if that energy is the chaos energy in your dimension, then it might be a good idea to investigate it while they are there."

"We should probably search around for the chaos emeralds and some of Eggman's bases for Sonic as well." Vector suggested. Espio and Charmy nodded in response.

"So, it's settled then." sega Tails said. "We can investigate things here while you guys try and figure out that device."

"Me and Tails can go check out the Angel Island here while you do that." Sonic suggested. "Just in case the Master Emerald here is acting weird like in your dimension."

"Shouldn't we tell Mr. Shadow and Miss Rouge about this?" Cream asked.

"Since they haven't came back yet, I'll just contact them on the way out." sega Tails said as everyone started to head off.

So, both groups signed off and immediately set off to work. Tails, Amy, Knuckles, and Cream agreed to go search for the chaos emeralds and Sonic, while Sally, Bunnie, Rotor, and the Chatoix went to check out more of Eggman's bases.

As everyone exited the hut, though, a small metallic bug slithered from the roof, keeping it's blinking red eyes on the group as they headed off. As they all walked off, the bug flew off and hid right under the Tornado, seeming to be acting as some sort of spy...

**Archie Universe: Somewhere in Robotropolis**

Deep in the compounds of Robotropolis, Dr. Eggman and his nephew Snively were hidden in an underground bunker, way below the city.

Dozens of glowing, steel machines were scattered all across the floor as Snively kept running back and fourth between them. Eggman, who was standing by a computer in the back of the room, smiled evilly in response to the readings on screens.

Containers of colored liquid flowed in the middle of the machines and sparked when Snively hooked up more wires to them.

"Systems are at 80% completion sir." Snively stated as he walked up to his uncle.

"Excellent Snively." Eggman declared as he continued to stare at the screen in glee. "Are we ready for the next step?"

"Yes sir." Snively answered as he typed a code onto the computer. "I can activate it right now if you like."

"Now is the perfect time Snively." Eggman responded.

There were a few beeping noises heard as Snively typed a command in the computer. Suddenly, a dark, outlined figure appeared on screen with multicolored energy signatures running through it's body. Snively finished the commands and then pressed the activation button to complete the plan. The multicolored lines then, instantly turned red as it went through the process...


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: All characters and settings belong to Sega.**

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Chapter 9

**Sega Universe: With Team Dark**

Shadow and Rouge dashed through the woods in search of their missing comrade, Omega. They had both tried contacting him but only received static on the other end of the line. So, they hurriedly searched the area between Angel Island and the GUN Headquarters for him.

Off in the distance, Rouge spotted a small plume of smoke creeping through some leaves. Seeing as that was their only lead, they ran towards it.

However, when they made it to the smoke, they didn't expect to see a few unexpected guests. Sitting in a large clearing was the helicopter Rouge, Shadow, and Omega had used to get to Dr. Eggman's base. But, now the machine had been sliced directly in half. The top blades were shattered and hung loosely from atop the vehicle. The engine in front had caught on fire, which was what was emitting a small plume of smoke.

Though, what concerned Shadow and Rouge was not the fallen vehicle, but the enemies standing near it. Three robots faced the helicopter, not noticing the threats behind them at the moment. One was Metal Sonic, the robot doppelgänger of Sonic the Hedgehog, and the others were the humanoid robots that were in Dr. Eggman's base. Metal Sonic looked to be downloading information into his hand, as various wires were coming out from it and were connected to something red in the vehicle.

"Stop!" Rouge exclaimed as she dashed towards the group. Shadow followed closely behind her as the 'bots all suddenly snapped their attention to them.

"ATTACK THEM." Metal Sonic droned as he continued his work. The two droids nodded in response and flew off towards their foes.

Rouge started the face off with one of her screw kicks aimed in one of the 'bots torsos. The attack didn't seem to faze it though, as it was still standing. So she went in for another kick.

Shadow, in the meantime, was using a series of homing attacks on his foe. His chaos powers still weren't working properly so he stuck to close ranged attacks. The robot rained lasers on him as he dashed around the field, but he dodged them all with ease.

Suddenly, the robot Rouge was fighting managed to land a hit on her as she coming down for another attack. The force of impact sent her flying towards Shadow, who just barely caught her before she hit the ground. As they picked themselves up, the two robots stood on each side of them, blocking them from getting to Metal Sonic.

The two companions only glanced at each other before they sent a flurry of attacks towards their attackers. Rouge kicked the 'bot straight onto its' legs, causing it to buckle down to the ground. Using this as an advantage, Shadow led his pursuer a bit away from the other robot. Then, putting on a burst of speed, he slammed his body into the machine, sending it flying towards it's fallen comrade. The two robots exploded when they impacted and rained bits of metal all over.

Noticing his lackey's failure, Metal Sonic angrily glared towards Shadow and Rouge. The wires he had extended had now withdrawn from their destination and slid back into Metal's hand like snakes.

"I'd stay stay where you are if I were you." Shadow warned Metal as he stood across from him. Rouge went into her battle stance while she glanced behind the machine.

"ACTUALLY, I HAVE WHAT I CAME FOR." Metal replied. Before anyone could move, he activated a glowing gem on his torso and is enveloped in a bright light.

Shadow and Rouge dash towards him but, are too late to stop him from escaping, as Metal had completely disappeared. "Did Metal just use Chaos Control?" Rouge asked in surprise.

"He must have an emerald." Shadow answered as he walked up to the fallen helicopter. Sitting in the now ruined cockpit was Omega. However, he now looked badly damaged from the crash.

Rouge examined him, trying to see if they could turn him on but her search was useless, as Omega now needed to be fully repaired before he could be back online.

"Looks like he stole all that data we collected." Rouge concluded as she continued to search over Omega. She heard no reply from Shadow and simply shrugged as she tried to pry Omega from the wreckage.

After a few failed attempts, she was finally able to pull out from the cockpit and onto the ground. Various wires hung out from Omega's legs as he was seated on the ground by Rouge. Making sure she retrieved all the loose cords, Rouge sighed heavily and turned around.

"I'm going to have call GUN to come-" she began before gasping in shock at the sight behind her. She stared at Shadow, who was now holding his head as if in pain, and ran over to him.

"Shadow what's..." she trailed off when she got a rather menacing glare from Shadow and tensed up. He suddenly dropped to his knees, still looking in pain, and began to rock back and forth.

"Shadow!" she tried again. But, he didn't even seem to hear her as he continued to sit on his knees. He then began to mumble to himself. Rouge thought she heard him say something along the line of 'get out' but she wasn't too sure. All she knew, though, was that something was seriously wrong with Shadow and feared Eggman may have did something to him while they were in the base.

She assumed his chaos powers not working must have been Eggman as well and figured the best bet to helping him would be to get him back to Angel Island where the others were. "Shadow come on." Rouge said gently as she put a hand on his shoulders. "We need to get you some-"

But, she was cut off as a fist abruptly slammed right into her face. Caught off guard, Rouge had no time to protect herself from the blow and now laid on the ground, unconscious. Shadow, who had now ceased his mumbling, slowly rose up off the ground.

However, Shadow looked...odd. His face now held no emotion and his movements were very stiff, almost as if he was a robot. He turned his head towards Rouge, still showing no emotion and walked over to her.

"BRING HER WITH US." a familiar voice commanded behind the tree. Red eyes shined brightly through the leaves as Shadow did what was he was told, and gently picked Rouge up and threw her over his shoulder.

Not even glancing behind him, he simply walked towards the red eyes behind the trees. A flash of white light shone from the patch of leaves before completely burning out, leaving nothing behind it...

**Archie Universe: In New Mobotropolis**

Doctor Quack, the head doctor in town, felt very concerned as the day went by. Normally, the Tommy Turtle Memorial Hospital only received a patient or two over the course of the day, unless there was an issue regarding the free fighter groups or something along those lines. However, today seemed to be a rather busy day.

It started that morning when one or two patients came in complaining of being light headed. Doctor Quack, not seeing any issue, wrote it off as a cold and sent the two citizens back home for the day. But, when those two patients turned into nearly 20, that was when he began to get concerned.

It seemed all of the patients were complaining of feeling dizzy, some even stating they had gotten sick at work before coming over. Thinking this was a case of a flu epidemic, he subscribed all of the patients with flu medicine, hoping to stop the spread of the disease before it got too out of hand.

But, everyone that took it earlier in the day had seemed to gotten even sicker. The medicine did nothing to stop the symptoms, if anything it looked like it made things worse, and now even more people were coming in sick.

Doctor Quack immediately informed the council of the details and explained the situation. Seeing the problem, the council addressed to all citizens to have caution and advised everyone to stay inside until the sickness could be dealt with.

Citizens became panicked, though, when they learned that the hospital knew very little about what was happening. People wanted answers on what was going on, especially after hearing the news of Sally's and the others disappearance earlier that week. Needless to say, the entire situation was escalating quickly.

"This is getting out of hand." Uncle Chuck stated as he sat sitting in the Freedom Fighter Headquarters. He wiped some sweat off his forehead, for he was quite exhausted after dealing with some concerned townsfolk.

"You can say that again." Nicole answered from the main computer screen. The headquarters had been swamped with visitors all day, demanding to get some sort of information on the current events. However, Uncle Chuck had managed to ensure at least some calm to them before running back inside.

The two companions were already working hard on fixing the device to send to Sally and the others back, not to mention all the recent villages asking for aid from the natural disasters and Eggman attacks.

Abruptly interrupting each other's train of thoughts, the door to the lab was thrown open as two blurs ran inside. Voice of angry mobians were heard past the opening and Chuck and Nicole saw Sonic and Tails hurry and slam the door closed.

"Why the heck is everyone so mad?" Sonic asked as he bent over to catch his breath. Upon returning from yet another trip to Angel island, Sonic and Tails were swarmed from angry mobians demanding answers to things they were not yet aware of. Seeing they could do nothing to help them, the two brothers dashed straight for headquarters before they could be demanded of anything else.

"Sorry sonny boy." Uncle Chuck said. "There's some kind of sickness spreading around and we're not sure how to cure it just yet."

"Sickness?" Tails asked in fear. "What's it do?"

"Well, it _seems _like the flu." Nicole answered for Chuck. "However when given the medicine for it, it just makes everyone worse off than before."

"Ya think Eggman has something with it don't you?" Sonic guessed.

"Unfortunately." Chuck said while he looked down. "Things just keep getting worse it seems."

"Was anything wrong with the Master Emerald?" Nicole asked while changing the subject.

"Nope." Sonic replied simply. "Knux said it wasn't doing anything suspicious and it looked fine."

Since nothing could be done at the moment, Sonic and Tails decided to hang out in the headquarters for a while until people got tired of waiting and went home. Chuck and Nicole were the only ones who could do anything right now so they left them to figure things out for the time being.

Things went kind of slow as night came along, though. The townsfolk, not wanting to catch the sickness, went back home as time went by and all was quiet as people went to bed. Chuck and Nicole, who had been working non-stop since the disappearance, continued their work despite their fatigue.

Seeing the coast was clear, Sonic and Tails headed home to rest up for tomorrow. Not wanting to just sit and do nothing the entire time, Sonic had planned him and Tails to go check out some of the sites where the natural disasters were occurring. Tails assumed since the energy was chaos energy from another dimension, there may be some sort of opening to release it, therefore giving them access to the dimension without the machine. Nicole and Chuck saw nothing wrong with the notion and gladly encouraged the two to do so first thing in the morning.

"Ya think Sally, Rotor, and Bunnie are doing ok in that dimension?" Tails asked his older brother. Sonic glanced his way before answering.

"I'm positive Tails." Sonic assured him as he rubbed his head. "Ya know if anything happened they would get in touch anyways."

"Yea I know..." Tails said as he trailed off. He could hardly believe how calm the night was as he walked home. With everything being thrown into complete chaos the past couple days, it seemed odd that everything was so still right now.

It was rare for them to even catch a break most of the time so, Tails decided to soak the calm in as much as possible before a new day of events started. However, as he was too busy daydreaming, Tails ended up running right into Sonic.

"Oh! Sorry about that Sonic." Tails apologized to him. But, Sonic didn't seem to notice. as he was busy staring straight ahead of him. Following his gaze, Tails glanced forward, trying to see what had made Sonic stop in the middle of the path.

The two had been walking right past the Tommy Turtle Memorial Hospital and were right in front of the main entrance. The only lights shining were the two street lamps on either side of the doors. All was still as Tails stared at the building.

He frowned in confusion when he didn't see anything past the building. "I don't see-" But he stopped talking when he suddenly spied a small slither of white light flash past the top part of the building windows.

Tails gasped when he saw it but was hushed by Sonic as he inched closer to the building. You could hardly see them, but there were actually dozens of the small slithers all around the building. They didn't seem to be coming from anywhere and only flashed white every few seconds before darting to another part of town.

Sonic and Tails observed them as they flew across the sky towards all the homes and disappear right on top the buildings. "What are those things?" Tails whispered to Sonic.

"I'm not sure..." Sonic answered him. He frowned at the sight, not knowing what the things were in the slightest. It was nothing he had ever seen before but the energy he felt from them felt...familiar. He just couldn't put his finger on where he had felt it before.

But, as the two gazed forward, both failed to see a small slither of light inch it's way towards the pair. Feeling a spike in the energy, Sonic barely had time to grab Tails and duck to the ground as the slither shot above their heads.

"They're attacking!" Tails exclaimed as Sonic picked him up. Seeing a change in target, the small slithers near the pair aimed for the two brothers as Sonic dashed towards the park to lose them.

Luckily for them, no one seemed to be in the park this late and they were given a clear path to run from their pursuers. As the white lights got closer to them, Tails yelled out to Sonic as more shot themselves towards them. However, Sonic dodged them with ease and ran in between some trees.

Trying to shake them off his tail, Sonic placed Tails in a bush. "Stay here! I'm gonna try and lose them. When the coast is clear, go get Uncle Chuck for help." He instructed in haste as the slithers came around a corner. Tails nodded and watched Sonic lead the attackers away from his position.

Staying still for a few seconds, Tails slowly inched his way out of the bush as he looked out for more of the white lights. Not seeing anything in the immediate area, he spun his namesakes around and hurriedly went back to the way he came.

He passed the hospital once more as he flew towards the safety of the building. He heard some trash cans fall down in an alleyway behind him, followed by a gust of wind rushing away from him. Knowing it was Sonic, he didn't look back and continued towards his target. Another problem arose, however, when he reached the path to the headquarters.

Dozens more of the white slithers were flying across the sky above the building. With no other options than to run straight for the front, Tails reared his namesakes and broke into another dash. The white slithers immediately detected him and flashed downwards as Tails neared right in front of the doors.

Meanwhile, Sonic tried to lead his attacks away from the building. He had already ran in out of the forest, slowly loosing some of the white lights as he did so. He was forced to get out, though, when more joined the chase and he could no longer tell which direction they were coming from.

Nearing an alley way, Sonic wall jumped to to the top on a shop and ran over the rooftops. Some of the lights continued down the alley, unaware of him changing directions. But, some saw him go another away and continued towards him at breakneck speed.

"Whoa! These things don't give up!" Sonic exclaimed as he poured on more speed. His feet echoed against the rooftops, causing a few annoyed citizens to step outside and yell at him as he passed by.

"Hey what's the big idea?!" he heard someone yell from behind him. Sonic ignored it though, and jumped across to another rooftop.

But, Sonic failed to realize more attackers had appeared in front of him and abruptly stopped at the edge of one of the roofs. Quickly jumping down onto the ground, he ended up running into another alley. However, the attackers are ready for him this time and block his path. Skidding to a stop, he goes to turn around but more are now there blocking the other side.

"Oh, so you guys want to play it that way huh?" Sonic asked as he smiled confidently. Going into a battle stance, Sonic prepares to attack the white lights head on.

Before he can touch them, though, a male voice yells out to him. "Sonic stop!" Sonic stops his homing attack mid stride before he can finish the attack. Briefly pausing, the slithers of light focus their attention to the two figures at the end of the alley.

"Don't let them touch you Sonic!" he heard Tails instruct him as they came closer. "They're deadly!"

"Brace yourself sonny-boy!" Uncle Chuck exclaims as he comes running behind Tails with something in his hand. A small popping noise is heard from his hands as he points a very familiar machine towards the lights.

Immediately, the slithers of light start to pulse and completely freeze their movements. Then, one by one, they all drop to the ground, seeming to dissolve into nothing as they touch the cement below them. When they all have disappeared, Sonic lets out a sigh of relief and runs towards his companions.

"Thanks for the save back there!" Sonic exclaimed to them.

"No problem Sonic!" Tails answered with a smile. "I hope I didn't take too long to get help."

"You were just in time lil bro." Sonic said as he glanced at Uncle Chuck. "Hey, how did you get them to disappear like that?"

"With this." Chuck replied while showing him the device they retrieved in Robotropolis.. "I'm going to need you boys to come back to headquarters for the night. We need to talk about something Nicole and I just discovered."

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**Seems I'm getting a bit slower uploading these chapters. I'll most likely have more free time at the end of the month though so expect another update when it gets near the end of May. Everyone still enjoying the story?**

**On Another note, I got a little inspired and added the rooftop chase scene when I listened to the Rooftop Run music while writing out this chapter or else it would have been in another place in town XD  
**


	10. Chapter 10

**Here's a long, action packed, chapter for you guys! Things are really starting to pick up now. ;)**

**Disclaimer: All characters and settings belong to Sega.**

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Chapter 10

**Sega Universe: With Tails's Group**

So far, Tails's group wasn't having much luck in finding any chaos emeralds. The emerald detector hadn't gone off at all, and they had been flying around in the tornado for a few hours. Tails only hoped Eggman hadn't gotten to them all first. But, speaking of the doctor, something had been bothering Tails ever since this whole thing started.

It wasn't like Eggman to plan things out like this. Sure, he did do some things ahead of time but anything regarding the chaos emeralds usually involved him bloating about it. Plus, he normally wasn't this sneaky with his plans. He still wasn't sure if the Master Emerald breaking was Eggman's fault or not, but he knew Sonic's disappearance had to be because of the evil scientist. He hoped Sonic was all right where ever he was.

He remembered Rouge and Shadow mentioning they had gotten information about some of Eggman's bases, but he hadn't heard back from them yet. He had tried contacting them after they took off, but was unable to reach them. He assumed they must have been busy and would get back to them later. He knew they usually did things on their own anyways.

He did feel a bit better, though, knowing they had some help in figuring out this entire mess. He was doubtful at first, but after talking through everything with Sally and the others, he felt they could be trusted enough to help. Besides, if Uncle Chuck's prediction about both of their dimension's events being connected was true, they would need all the help they could get.

As he dived deeper into his thoughts, he flew the tornado over a small range of mountains. Thick, storm clouds sounded in the distance, making him snap out of his trance. He focused his attention in front of him and gazed at the incoming clouds. A flock of flickies flew away from the incoming storm and past the plane as a clap of thunder sounded.

"Guys, we might have to land until the storm passes!" he yelled over the engines. The storm drove quickly towards them, while lightning exploded all around it.

Tails carefully navigated downwards, trying to find a safe place to land the plane. He spied a small cave on the side of one of the mountains and headed for it. Strong turbulence made the plane wobble about as it descended. Tails saw some trees and parked the plane under it to protect it from the passing storm. Making the sure the plane wouldn't go anywhere, the group run into the cave as rain drops began to pour on them.

Huddling close to each other, everyone plops onto the rocky ground with a sigh.

"We're not having much luck are we?" Amy asked as she grabbed onto her wet quills. She squeezed them tightly, trying to remove as much water from them as possible.

"We just have to keep looking." Tails responded. He glanced over at Knuckles, who hadn't said a word since they took off in the plane earlier.

"Do you think we can trust them?" Knuckles asked Tails, referring to Sally and the others. He stared at the cave wall in front of him as he waited for an answer.

"Do we really have much of a choice?" Tails replied with a shrug. "I mean, they seem trustworthy enough."

"I agree." Cream piped. Cheese was floating next to her, but was turned around from the rest of the group. "They we're really nice. And they did tell us the truth when we asked them."

Knuckles didn't reply and simply stared in front of him. Even though it was true that the the newcomers didn't seem dangerous, he still felt like something was off in the entire situation. Things didn't add up. Like Tails, Knuckles knew if this was Eggman's doings, he sure was being serious about it.

It didn't help that he could barely feel the Master Emerald's energy either. When it had shattered, it felt like something was ripped out of his entire being and it had made him on edge ever since. When the emerald had broken before, he could feel it's pieces from wherever he was. But now...now it just seemed like the energy was on it's last leg in surviving. It was like all the power was sucked from it. And that fact was far more serious than anything else going on at the moment.

Suddenly, Cheese shouted out and pointed towards the back of the cave. Cream looked at him in confusion. "What's wrong Cheese?"

"Chao! Chao!" Cheese exclaimed while continuing to point in the back. Cream gasped loudly.

"What is it?" Amy asked. Cream looked back to her in excitement.

"Cheese said there's something glowing back there!" She exclaimed while pointing behind her. Everyone walked over to where she was standing and squinted their eyes. They all stood in silence, trying to see past the thick darkness until they all spied a small, glowing blue light.

"You think it's an emerald?" Amy questioned. However, Tails and Knuckles had already started taking off in the direction of the glow. Amy, Cream, and Cheese all followed behind them.

The path towards the glow was covered in almost complete darkness. Drips of water plopped down to the ground around them. The thunder outside sent a slight rumble through the tunnel, causing small pebbles to shake off the walls. Keeping close to the walls, they slid their hands against the rocks, making sure to not bump into anything dangerous.

A brighter light shone ahead, lighting up the floor in front of them. A small opening revealed itself ahead and they all entered the small hole cautiously. When they all stepped inside, everyone gasped in awe at the sight in front of them.

There seemed to be a large cavern deep inside the mountain they were holed up in. Large rocky walls circled all around the cavern, all covered in small, white crystals. The walls led up to a small hole that had a river of water flowing from it and led to a large river below the rocks. Boulders were scattered throughout the river, making them look like stepping stones.

However, the main thing everyone was most interested in was the large platform directly under the rush of water coming from the ceiling. Atop of it was where the blue glow was coming from and on closer inspection, it indeed was one of the chaos emeralds.

Tails glanced over in it's direction. "I should be able to get it if I fly over." He went to take off but Amy grabbed onto his shoulder.

"No Tails!" Amy yelled. "It's too dangerous! You might hit one of those rocks up there."

Tails looked at her in confusion before slowly looking back up at the ceiling. Not seeing them at first, Tails gasped when he spied the very sharp rocks hanging directly over the platform, looking like they could fall at any moment.

"We could go across the rocks?" Cream suggested. She pointed to the boulders sitting in the water.

"Sounds like a plan." Tails agreed. Knuckles, Amy, and Cream went towards them. But, Amy stopped Cream before they could go any further.

"Sorry Cream but I think it would be better if you stayed back on this one." Amy said sympathetically.

"Aww, but Amy I want to help you guys!" Cream insisted.

"I know you do Cream, but I don't want you getting hurt going up there." Amy said. "How about you guys be a lookout? If you stay here, you should be able to warn us of any rocks that fall. Sound fair?"

Cream thought it over for a few seconds before nodding. "Ok, I can do that Amy." she said with a smile.

"Thanks Cream." Amy replied while meeting back up with the others.

As everyone approached the first boulder, they saw that their plan was going to be a little tricky. Since it was raining pretty hard outside, the current of the river was really rough the closer they got to the platform. One slip up would send them in the strong water below, most likely drowning them if they fell in.

So, Knuckles said he could safely glide over to each one while Tails could hover over while carrying Amy. Being extra careful along the way, they navigated the stepping stones to the emerald. However, they were met with another problem when they reached it. It was too tall to jump onto so they would have to climb up.

"I'll climb up and get it. You guys cover me." Knuckles instructed, referring to the rocks above them. Tails nodded and watched Knuckles slowly climb up. Amy glanced over at Cream, who had held her hands in front of her mouth in anticipation.

Trying to keep his grip on the slippery rocks, Knuckles finally made it to the top of the platform. He slowly stood up, glancing above him at the now very close sharp rocks hanging above him. He could see they were barely hanging on the ceiling and quietly walked over to the glowing emerald, not wanting to make too much noise in fear of getting attacked by the rocks.

Grabbing on the blue emerald, he tucked it inside his dreadlocks. Sighing in relief that he had gotten it, he started back towards the others. But, he froze when his vision saw something dark blue from the corner of his eyes.

"Cream!" Knuckles heard Amy scream from below. He snapped his attention to Cream's direction and widened his eyes in anger at he saw.

Metal Sonic, who had came from out of nowhere, was holding Cream and Cheese in his left hand while he pointed his laser gun at the pair. Knuckles could see Amy and Tails from where he was standing and they had started to move towards Cream. _'How the heck did he find us here?'_ Knuckles questioned himself. He started to move forward but stopped when he heard Metal speak.

"NO ONE MOVE." Metal Sonic droned at the them. "ONE MORE STEP FORWARD AND I SHOOT THEM BOTH."

"What do you want Metal?!" Tails exclaimed at the robot copy.

"HAND ME THE EMERALD." Metal demanded while pushing the gun closer to Cream and Cheese. Cream closed her eyes in fear while Cheese glared at Metal.

No one said anything. Amy and Tails looked back at Knuckles, trying to figure out what they should do. There was no way they could hand over the emerald to Metal Sonic. But, they didn't want to risk Cream's safety either. Knuckles pondered over the situation, looking all around him for any ideas. It was then that he spied something that could get them out of this. He flashed a smile at them before turning back at Metal.

"I've got a better idea." Knuckles stated while picking up a rock from the ground. "How about we kick your butt instead!" He exclaimed while throwing the rock towards Metal.

The robot merely stood there in surprise, not expecting the throw and followed the rock as it flew in the air. It impacted on a hanging rock formation on the ceiling and caused it to snap from the ceiling. Seeing it fall towards him, Metal pushed Cream and Cheese away from him and dived to the right, narrowly dodging the rock as it smashed to the ground.

Seeing their chance, Cream and Cheese flew away from Metal and back towards the front of the cave. Metal growled and glared back at the others before getting back up.

But, he didn't even get a word in before he was hit with something hard. His body flew backwards towards one of the walls and slammed into it. The force of impact shook the whole cavern, causing some of the rocks above to fall towards the ground.

Seeing the danger, Knuckles leaped off the top platform, barely dodging one of the rocks as they collapsed around him. He glided back to the entrance while Tails and Amy distracted the robot. Metal kept getting pounded by the pair every time he tried to get up. Not being able to take much more, he yelled out in anger and sent a shock wave of electricity from his body towards them. Amy and Tails were pushed back and crumpled to the ground.

The cavern continued to break away and shook even more as more things started falling. Knuckles landed back onto the ground, emerald safely behind him, as Metal rushed towards him. He blocked Metal's punch with his hands and sent a series of kicks before he could even react. Now both tied in deep combat, they attacked each other swiftly, breaking even more of the caverns in their struggle.

Amy and Tails, now recovered from the shock wave, picked themselves off the ground and saw the fight. Knuckles managed to punch Metal in the torso and thought he landed a powerful blow. But, Metal simply stood there, not looking like the attack fazed him. Caught off guard for a brief second, Knuckles was kicked in the face by Metal and slid backwards on the ground.

The chaos emerald had been knocked from out of his dreadlocks from the blow and bounced on the ground. Amy and Tails dived towards it, but we're too slow as Metal had already dashed at it. He held it in his clawed hand and looked down at the trio in disgust.

"FOR CAUSING SO MUCH TROUBLE, YOU ALL CAN DIE DOWN HERE." Metal said while firing a laser from his cannon at the ceiling. The blast sent large chunks of what was left of the cavern towards them.

Metal turned to leave them but was hit in the back of head unexpectedly. He lost grip of the emerald and it rolled back onto the ground towards the other mobians. He snapped his body behind him and glared murderously towards his attacker.

Cream and Cheese stood behind him, putting on a brave face. "You have no right hurting my friends!" she yelled in anger. "Leave them alone!"

Cheese, who had held rocks in his hands, threw them at Metal.

"YOU THINK MEASELY PEBBLES CAN HARM ME?" He asked them as he marched forward. "YOU'RE WASTING YOUR TIME."

"Pebbles might not hurt you, but this will!" a female voice sounded behind him. Forgetting about the other mobians for a second, he was caught off guard once more as he was slammed by Amy's hammer. He flew up into the air and was hit by some of the rocks on his way back down. But, he never even got to touch the ground as Tails and Knuckles stood directly below him and sent a hit to his side. He rocketed towards the river and landed inside with a splash.

"Come on! I have the emerald. We need to get out of here before we get crushed!" Tails yelled to his friends. Everyone ran for their lives as rocks smashed into the ground. The entire tunnel shook as they dashed through the darkness in front of them.

Spying the exit back outside, everyone rushed out to the open. Cold rain drops hit their faces as they were greeted by a large gust of wind. Looking behind them, they heard the tunnel collapse and rocks tumbled out of the entrance. There was no way anything was getting out of there anytime soon.

Sighing out in relief, Tails bent over, trying to catch his breath. The blue chaos emerald shone brightly in his hand and he held it up in victory.

"That was a close one." Amy stated, now standing under a tree. It was still raining and she tried to avoid get any more wet than she already was. "Thanks a lot Cream."

"You're welcome Amy." she said with a grin. Cheese happily smiled beside her. Everyone then took a moment to catch their breath from their near death experience. The storm had let up somewhat and the constant thunder from before had ceased. Now only a light drizzle of rain was falling down.

"I think we should meet up with the others and tell them what happened." Tails suggested. "Maybe they've found something by now?"

"Yea, let's head back to the plane." Amy replied.

Clearing off some loose branches that had fallen on top of the plane, everyone piled back into the airplane and took off into the sky. The storm clouds were beginning to part and no longer lurked about. The sun shone brightly above them and sent a glare onto the chaos emerald in Knuckles's hand.

He rubbed his bruised arms as they flew away from the cave. They had been lucky this time against the robot. Previous fights with the bot had left him a lot more winded than he was now. But, luck seemed to be on their side after all. He gazed behind him at the cave they were in. He knew there was no way Metal could get out, even if he had survived the fall in the water.

He then begun to silently listen to the hum of the engine as he gazed back down at the emerald. He let himself deeply focus on it's energy, trying to see if he could still feel the Master Emerald's power through it like before. The energy flowed through him, filling him with warmth. As he mind tugged for the main source of power, a small trickle flashed through the energy and pulsed very softly.

Trying to focus on the small amount of energy, Knuckles didn't notice the warnings of his friends as he sat on the edge of the Tornado's wing. A strong gust of wind slammed into his side and snapped him out of trance. His eyes flew open to let him see that he was now free falling towards the ground.

"Knuckles!" he heard Tails yell from above him. Not yet realizing what had pushed off, he was hit sharply in the back by something hard. He screamed out in pain and held tightly onto the emerald in his hand as the earth zoomed closer to him.

He managed to turn his head around far enough to see his attacker as he came closer to the trees below him. Spying blue metal to his right, he did a double take in surprise to recognize he was being attacked by Metal Sonic! _'How did he survive that cave in?!' _Knuckles thought.

But, he didn't have time to muse over that. Right now he needed to do something before he splattered to the ground. Catching some air in his dreadlocks, he glided safely downwards. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Metal Sonic but couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Metal didn't seem to have a scratch on him! He was completely healed, almost looking brand new, and was flying right behind him.

"THE EMERALD." Metal droned. He angled himself at Knuckles and blasted his rocket boosters to full blast. Knuckles, still gliding down, turned to his left and landed onto a tree top as Metal skidded past him.

Jumping down onto the ground below him, he saw Metal swiftly turn around and boomerang himself straight for Knuckles. Tucking the emerald back into his dreadlocks, he held his fists up to block. But, no attack came and instead Metal landed in front of him, his hands on his hips.

"THERE IS NO USE RESISITING." Metal stated as he stared at his foe. The two were standing directly under a canopy of leaves. Streams of sunlight poke through the small opening of branches above them and flickies chirped in the distance. The Tornado, that Knuckles had heard on his descent, was now silent and Knuckles could no longer tell where they had gone.

"There's no way I'm letting you get the emerald Metal." Knuckles growled as he clenched his fist at him.

"YOU DON'T HAVE A CHOICE." Metal responded, his eyes glued to Knuckles.

"Oh, and why is that?" Knuckles asked him angrily. He stared head on, preparing for the inevitable attack from Metal.

"Because of me." a new voice chimed from behind a tree. Knuckles nearly jumped up in shock at the sudden visitor, as he didn't even hear him approach. He gazed in the direction of the voice, seeing the shadow of a person slowly walking towards him. But, he gasped out loud when the figure came into view.

"...Shadow?!" Knuckles exclaimed as he stared wide eyed at him. Shadow wore an expressionless face and moved almost like a robot, as he went beside Metal.

"The hedgehog and rabbit girl have been captured." Shadow stated. His eyes were glazed over and he didn't look entirely focused on what was in front of him. "However, the fox boy escaped before I could restrain him."

"What?!" Knuckles yelled. "Shadow what are you doing?!" Shadow, however, paid him no attention and didn't reply. Knuckles couldn't believe Shadow had betrayed them.

"NO MATTER. WE WILL GET HIM IN TIME." Metal responded. "NOW, ASSIST ME IN SECURING THE EMERALD."

Shadow only nodded before suddenly vanishing from sight. He used a chaos control to freeze time and sent a large punch to Knuckles's head. He slammed into a tree beside him, and slid down the wood. The top of his head was now covered in blood and he had his eyes closed.

"WHAT A WASTE." Metal said while looking down at him. He motioned for Shadow to grab the emerald and followed behind him as he walked towards Knuckles.

Not wasting any more time, Shadow moved over to his still body and reached to grab the emerald. However, Knuckles, who was thought to be unconscious, grabbed onto his hand and flipped him over into Metal.

"I told you." Knuckles gasped to his foes. "There's no way you're getting the emerald. I don't care if Shadow is working for you or not." His head ached badly but Knuckles was not about to let go of the emerald without a fight. His friends were also in trouble and used that fact as motivation to get back up and fight.

He quickly forced his aching body off the ground and dashed toward the fallen pair. Metal pushed Shadow off of him and dodged the hit. Shadow, who was back on his feet, stared at Knuckles and sent a flurry of kicks in his direction. Metal followed suit and both attacked him head on.

Not fast enough to dodge both sets of attacks, Knuckles was hit back and forth like a rag doll. His body suffered massive damage and blood was all over him. However, he still kept the chaos emerald safely tucked in his dreadlocks, too stubborn to give up from the onslaught of hits. Knowing he couldn't take much more, though, Knuckles focused to the emerald and tried to get it to heal his beaten body. He figured if he could just borrow a little energy from the emerald, he might be able to knock them out long enough for him to escape.

However, there was a major problem in his plan. Even though he could sense the energy just fine, he was unable to tap directly into it's power and use it. It seemed to be rejecting him and pushed his mind away from it. Nothing like this had ever happened to him before and it honestly had him dumbfounded on what to do.

Now not having any way of healing himself, Knuckles could no longer take the attacks and fell to the ground. Shadow and Metal gave him no mercy and slammed their fists into his head once more, causing his body to flip backwards and him land on his back. The emerald bounced on the ground as he fell and rolled over in front of Shadow.

Knuckles didn't have the strength to get back up and could only lay in his own pool of blood. His head had suffered more damage than the rest of his body and had a large cut right over his forehead. His body had cuts and bruises all over it and one of his arms looked to be sprained as well. His vision blurred as he looked up at his foes.

Shadow picked up the emerald and tucked it into his quills. He then walked over to Knuckles and started to lift him up.

"N-no." Knuckles groaned. But, he was too exhausted to move and his eyes slowly closed. He tried to keep conscious but his head wouldn't let him. He did nothing to stop Shadow from lifting him over his shoulder and simply hung from it limply.

The last thing he saw before completely blacking out were Metal's glowing red eyes staring at him in victory.

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**How did you guys like the battle? Personally, I love it when the characters have to fight against Metal. Also, what do all think of the Sonic Lost World announcement? Honestly, the 6 guardians have me interested. **

**Well, I'll update sometime next month. Summer's coming up so expect more frequent updates! See ya guys!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Sorry for the long wait. Got distracted by real life stuff, plus all that E3 news had me occupied for a while. ^^' Anyways, here's the next chapter for all of you. **

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Chapter 11

**Sega Universe: With Tails**

Tails ached all over. His body refused to move yet from out under the bush he was residing. He had cuts and bruises all over him, but nothing too serious.

Parts of the tornado were scattered all over. He was very lucky to be able to have survived that blast from Shadow. He still didn't understand exactly what had happened though.

(FlashBack)

"_Knuckles!" Tails warned his friend. _

_He barely caught sight of Metal Sonic barreling toward them to turn the plane away. But, Metal managed to smack Knuckles off the wing and fell straight for the ground. Tails immediately went to steer to catch his comrade._

_However, he never made it to him, for he heard a very familiar voice exclaim, "Chaos Blast!"_

_The whole left side of the plane exploded into flames and moved toward the ground from the unexpected attack. Amy, Cream, and Cheese had been knocked out by the sudden blast and Tails was half out of it. He frantically shook himself back awake and then gazed behind him to check the girls. _

_But, all he could do was stare in shock as he saw Shadow standing in the back of the plane. He had scooped up his friends and chaos controlled them away from the flames. He then stared at Tails, hands held out in a fighting stance._

"_Shadow, what are you-" Tails began was cut off as Shadow slammed hard into the back of the plane. A giant hole ripped through the engine and smoked billowed out from everywhere. The fire was spreading fast. _

_Not wasting another second, Shadow grabbed onto Tails's hand and pulled him out of the pilot's seat. Tails coughed and spluttered as the smoke lingered around and was thrown across Shadow's shoulder. But, Tails refused to go down without a fight. _

_He used his namesakes to get out of Shadow's grasp and fell onto one of the plane's wings. Shadow merely huffed in response and swiftly sent a punch in his direction. Tails rolled out of the way and sent an attack of his own towards Shadow. Caught off guard, the kick caused Shadow to fall of the edge of the plane. _

_Thinking the the coast is clear, Tails hovers towards the front seat, intending to try and land the plane the best he can and to go get help. He didn't have time to wonder why Shadow was attacking right now, and frankly, the only thing that bothered him was that his friends were in trouble. _

_Unfortunately, Tails didn't realize how far the plane had went down and was thrown to the side when the machine came into contact with a tree. Desperately gripping the controls, he pushed upwards on the steering. However, he heard a grunt behind him and gasped in surprise to find Shadow back on the plane. _

"_Chaos Blast!" Shadow yelled. The attack enveloped the plane in a red aura. Everything went black as Tails tumbled into the air, unaware of his surroundings. _

_His vision was extremely blurry and he felt metal all around him. Finally, though, after what seemed like an eternity, his body landed roughly on the ground. He heard parts of the now destroyed plane fall to the ground around him. _

_Forcing his eyes to open, he saw that he was laying in the forest below. Giant chunks of metal were scattered everywhere. Some of the grass had caught fire from the burning metal as well. _

_Tails looked down at himself. His entire body was scorched. He had cuts all over, and his fur had been singed. He carefully went to move any part of his body and sighed in relief when he was able to shift his position. It was a miracle nothing was broken in the fall. _

_Slowly pushing his body upwards, he grunted as he sat upright on the ground. He blinked his eyes a few times to clear his vision, for everything still looked really blurry. Letting himself catch his breath, he sat on the ground for a few seconds, letting his body recover from the fall. But, he wasn't able to rest for long, as he saw Shadow land nearby him. _

_Knowing he would be no match for Shadow in his state, he quietly dragged himself underneath a bush beside him. Hoping he had hidden well, he covered his mouth with his hand to keep quiet. He tensed up when he heard Shadow's footsteps in front of him. Tails looked through some of the leaves and noticed Shadow coming in his direction. _

_Fortunately, though, Shadow stopped midway through his stride and held a hand up to his ear. Mumbling a quick 'yes', he took off in the opposite direction, leaving Tails alone for the time being._

_(End Flashback)_

Tails was still in shock over the fact Shadow had been working with Metal Sonic. And where had they taken Amy, Cream, and Cheese? He hoped to Chaos they were all right.

With not else much to do, Tails managed to stand up from his position. Dusting himself off, he sighed heavily as he gazed around at the now ruined Tornado. There was now way he would be able to repair it anytime soon. The entire structure had been split in half and both wings were in pieces. Something like this would take him weeks to fix.

So, he figured he should try and call for help on his communicator. To his dismay, though, the device had been crushed. "Just great..." he mumbled to himself. Glancing back at the wreckage one last time, he sighed in defeat and started to walk in a random direction. His namesakes were still sore from the crash so he unfortunately could not fly just yet. Tails hoped he would come across something to get them out of this mess.

**Sega Universe: With Vector's Group**

The Chaotix, Sally, Rotor, and Bunnie had decided to search around in the forest first. Espio had told them they he recently found some info regarding some locations of Dr. Eggman's bases and, based on the info they had, there was one just outside Station Square.

"So, you guys are detectives?" Rotor asked Vector. They group had been getting to know each other as they walked on. Sally and the others were still a bit confused on how things were in this new dimension and had a lot of questions.

"The best detectives in all of Station Square!" Charmy buzzed excitedly. He had a huge grin on his face and hovered about the group.

"We get tons of people asking us for help." Vector bragged. "We were actually on a job when we met you guys."

"Ah, I remember." Sally replied. "You said you guys we're looking for Sonic. I guess Tails asked you guys if you could help?"

"Well, actually, Amy asked us." Vector said. "There was no way she was going to let us say no anyways when her boyfriend was missing." He smirked at his comrades after saying this.

Sally, Rotor, and Bunnie all stop in surprise after hearing Vector's remark. "Wait, Amy and Sonic.." Rotor began, "...are dating in this dimension?"

"I'm guessing they aren't in your world?" Espio asked the group. They all shake their heads.

"Actually, sugah-hog and Sally girl here are dating in our world." Bunnie explained. Sally scratches the back of her head after she says this. Vector and the other widened their eyes.

"Oh." Vector replied awkwardly. There's a bit of silence as they continue on after that. However, Rotor continues on with some more questions throughout the trip.

Finally, though, after a few more hours of walking around, they come across a large, grey building in a clearing. Several of the new humanoid guards lingered about the entrance and looked straight ahead.

"Swatbots..." Sally said aloud.

"Swatbots?" Charmy asked. "What are those?"

"Wait, you guys have never seen these before?" Rotor asks curiously.

"Well, we saw them when we met you guys but we didn't know what they were." Vector replied. "They look a lot different than what Eggman usually uses."

Sally crosses her arms and looks down at the ground in deep thought. "Oh, well usually that's what the Eggman in our dimension uses..."

They all stand in silence at this new revelation. If robots from Sally's dimension were in their dimension, there was no doubt that the Eggman from her dimension was behind this entire plot. Of course, that didn't rule out the possibility of the two evil scientists joining forces either.

"Well, we're not going to find anything out just standing here." Rotor said, seeming to read everyone's mind. "We need a way to sneak in there."

"I agree." Sally replied. She looks at the the building carefully. She scans her eyes over the front, trying to find any they could get in. She spies some smaller buildings off to the right that are connected to the main building and stops to look them over. Large semi trucks are seen delivering supplies to the smaller buildings, all filled with large crates. An idea formed into her mind and she immediately turned to tell her friends of the plan.

XXX

"Charmy, can you get off my head?" Espio whispered to the hyper active bee. The group of mobians had agreed to Sally's plan to sneak in by getting into the crates. They all had to split into groups and would meet back up when they got inside the building. Unfortunately, Espio got paired with Charmy.

"Sorry Espio." Charmy whispered back, stifling a laugh. He fluttered down and squeezed beside his friend.

The crate raddled from the movement of the truck. Rotor managed to catch one of the trucks coming in from outside the complex and they all quickly jumped inside one. They got inside one just before it reached all the guards outside thankfully.

The truck abruptly stopped and their hiding spot jerked forwards. Espio and Charmy heard mumbling from outside, most likely the chatter from some of the robots. Espio tried to focus on what they were saying as the crate was picked up.

"...crates are a lot heavier than usual?" said one of the robot workers. Espio and Charmy both froze and held their breaths.

"Just get them inside." droned another. The two friends sighed out in relief, both very thankful no one was caught already.

They waited until the crate completely stopped before getting out. They heard the robots' foot steps move further away and immediately pushed the top open. Harsh light greeted them as they climbed out and both friends blinked rapidly.

"Where is everyone else?" Charmy asked Espio. Gazing around, the two didn't see anything besides more crates. There were hundreds of them scattered on the floor. Many were in stacks that reached the ceilings and filled almost every corner of the room.

"Hey guys!" a whisper shouted from behind them. Both turned around swiftly to reveal their other friends. They all stepped from behind a stack of crates.

"Ok, now where do we go?" Vector asked the group.

"There." Sally said while pointing to a large, grey door. They all walked towards it, all trying to be as quite as they could in case any guard came around.

Walking through the unlocked door, they were greeted by a long, steel hallway. Various doors were set on either side of them.

Trying all the doors they passed, most were locked tight. Thankfully, though, there were more halls connected to the one they entered, so they weren't stuck in one place.

"Does anyone else think it's weird that no one has been patrolling in here?" Rotor asked abruptly. He stopped in the middle of the hall, his hand on his chin in thought.

"Usually the doctor keeps the warehouses on low surveillance." Espio answered. "He normally keeps most of the guards in the main part of the base."

"Hmmm..." Rotor mumbles as he continues to walk down the hall. Something didn't seem right to him. He gazed over at Sally and Bunnie, both looking to be feeling the way he did.

"Ah don't know ya'll." Bunnie stated. "What if we're walking into a trap?"

"We don't have much of a choice though." Vector replied. "We can't exactly go back out the way we came in." He saw the looks of Sally, Bunnie, and Rotor, all still looking uneasy. He began to reassure them but was cut off when everything started to rumble around them.

"What's happening?!" Charmy exclaimed. He stared behind him and gasped in shock when metal gates suddenly came out out of the ceiling.

"RUN!" Sally yelled out. Fleeing for their lives, everyone dashed down the hall. The metal gates slammed to the ground behind them, quickly catching up to their position.

Thinking fast, Sally spied an ajar door and motioned for the others to follow her inside. She slid inside, everyone else getting inside right before the gates reached their location.

"Figured..." Rotor gasped. "...something wasn't right..." His fellow comrades were sighing out in relief that they had barely avoided getting captured.

"What is this place?" Charmy asked with his back turned to the group.

The room they had entered looked to be a small office. A doorway in the back of the room was open and flashes of white light were coming from inside. Taking the lead, Sally walked inside to investigate the light. But she was met with a pleasant surprise when entering.

In front of her was a large window. Loud gasps were heard behind her as she stared in shock at the sight in front of her.

"Are those..." Vector began but cut off midway as he got a good look at the sight.

In a large factory room, thousands of Metal Sonic robots stood in an assembly line. Several machines were hooked up to some of the models with heavy, dark wires. Capsules of swirling, colorful liquid stood near each machine and its' contents were poured into the robots. The robots that looked to be complete were on their way out another door in the back of the room.

"IMPRESSIVE ISN'T IT?" droned a voice from behind the group.

"Metal Sonic?!" exclaimed Vector in shock.

Metal, or at least one of the copies of Metal, seemed to appear out of nowhere and was standing before the group, his hands on his hips. "SOON THIS ENTIRE, PITIFUL PLANET WILL BE ENCASED IN THOSE."

"So that's what Eggman is planning, is it?" Sally asked in rage. "To have everyone be his puppets?!"

"NOT EXACTLY. THAT WOULD BE TOO SIMPLE" Metal said simply. "TOO BAD YOU ALL WON'T GET TO FIND OUT THOUGH." Suddenly, Metal whipped a cannon from one of his arms and fired a bright, white light at Vector and Charmy. The two shrieked in surprise as they were completely enveloped in the light. When the light cleared, though, the two were nowhere to be seen!

"What did you do to them?!" Espio demanded the robot menace.

"A PLACE WHERE YOU ALL WILL BE SOON." Metal replied, aiming his cannon at him. But, Espio was quickly pushed out of the way by Bunnie before he could get blasted.

"We got ta get out of here!" Bunnie shouted to the others. Sally nodded and dodge one of the shots by Metal.

"But what about-" Rotor began but was cut off when he was sent a glare by Sally.

"We don't have time for that right now!" She shouted as she dived for Bunnie and Espio. She pulled them from the ground and the entire group dashed out of the room.

However, they were met with another problem. The gates were still up in the hall and they were trapped inside. Luckily, though, Bunnie thought fast and blasted a hole through on of the walls with her own arm cannon.

Not wasting any time, Metal thrust forward them. Bunnie continued to blast through walls as they fled until they reached another hall that was thankfully not blocked off. Rounding a corner, though, Rotor screams out as a metal claw grabs onto his shoulder.

"Rotor!" Sally exclaims. But, she isn't able to do anything for him, for Metal had already blasted him with the white light.

"In here!" Bunnie yells out as she points to another door. Busting through the door frame with a cannon blast, the three remaining group members run directly outside.

Several Swatbots that were on patrol are alerted of their presence as they run as fast as they could away from them. They soon, too, join the chase and barrel towards the group.

Metal blasted through the door not long after they reached the end of the compound. "We'll never get out of here with all those of chasing us!" Sally yelled.

"Just wait hun." Bunnie reassures her. "Ah have a plan."

Aiming her cannon directly in front of the incoming army of drones, the shot caused a giant hole to crack through the ground. All the robots directly in front fell through, causing the ones behind to fall and pile up. This slowed Metal Sonic down long enough to allow the trio to fell back into the forest unseen.

Running until they could no longer see or hear any of the robots from the complex, the group stop and rest by a stream.

"That could have gone better..." mumbled Sally while she sat down on the ground. Bunnie sat with her and sighed heavily.

Bunnie stole a glance at Espio, who was just looking behind them thoughtfully. She knew what he was thinking, and frankly she felt the same way about Rotor. "We'll get them back." she said to him. Espio didn't stir and continued to stare onwards.

A few minutes passed in silence before she got an answer. "...We should regroup with Tails's group." He turned around to look at them. "They may have found something by now."

"Excellent idea." Sally stated while taking out her communicator. She attempted to contact Tails's group, but no one responded. She frowned slightly and kept trying.

"I'm not getting a signal..." she said. "Hold on, let me try and contact Nicole. Maybe she can patch through to them."

"Forget it." Espio said. "They must have run into trouble. We can meet back up at the workshop. If he's not there we must think of another plan."

"No need." said a weak sounding voice abruptly. Not hearing anyone approach them, everyone snapped their heads towards the noise, which revealed a very battered looking Tails.


	12. Chapter 12

**Wow, it's been over a month since I last updated this! Sorry about that. XD Kind of got busy with life and stuff. But, here's another chapter for ya guys! It's kind of short though.**

**But, first, I'm going to respond some reviews:**

**bearvalley3365: Sorry, but I won't be adding any OCs to this story. :/ But, I'm glad your liking the story thus far! :)**

**Biagotmilkandjelly: You'll see what's up with them right now my friend. ;)**

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Chapter 12

**White Space:**

Falling onto the ground, both Sonic and Dr. Eggman exit the dark portal. Gazing at their surroundings, the two see they have arrived on top of a mountain. A jagged path led up to an active volcano. Rivers of lava spilled from the top and down into the rocks below them.

Sonic focused his attention to the top of the volcano where he saw a dark, purple figure float above and disappear. Growling, he prepared himself for the trek up the volcano and went to take off.

"We're not heading into that volcano are we?" Eggman asked in disbelief. "We'll be fried to a crisp!"

"Do you wanna get the chaos emerald?" Sonic countered.

"Well, yes but-"

"Then come on!" Sonic exclaimed as he took the lead. Eggman simply sighed in annoyance and took off after him.

Coming across a lake of lava, Sonic and Eggman hop across it by using rock platforms floating on the surface. The flame creatures from Crisis City had now returned and were littered in almost every inch of the place. Navigating their way over to another platform, they see the path ahead is blocked with rocks.

However, Eggman simply smashes them out of the way using his mech. With Sonic taking care of the enemies around them and Eggman clearing the path, it took them little time to travel up he volcano.

Reaching a cave entrance, the two dash inside and are greeted by darkness. It was rather peculiar as to why it was so as well, considering their was still lava everywhere.

"Why the heck it is still dark in here?!" Sonic exclaimed while using his homing attack move to light up purple orbs. He wasn't sure why they were there but they were revealing the path ahead, and that was all that mattered.

Finally getting out of the cave, both run up a spiral hill and back outside. In front of them was a large rock platform over top of the lava. They weren't quite up to the top of the volcano yet, but they could see the top rim from where they were.

Jumping onto the platform, Sonic and Eggman stand still as they as see Mephiles materialize in front of them, and in his hand is the red chaos emerald.

"Alright Mephiles!" Sonic yelled out. "We're done playing your little game!"

"Oh, but I thought you liked playing the game of cat and mouse?" Mephiles responds, a hint of amusement in his voice. "You and the doctor seem to play that a lot."

"What exactly do you want from us Mephiles?" Eggman cuts in. He stares hard at the creature before him, his eyes not leaving him for a second.

"What do I want?" Mephiles questioned. He twirled the emerald in his hand, seeming to mock the two rivals. "That answer is simple." He pauses to glance at Sonic before continuing. "I want to give you the same gift you gave to me."

"What are you talking about?" Sonic demanded with his fists raised. "We've never even met before."

"That's where your wrong hedgehog." Mephiles replies, his tone filled with hate. "You two may not remember, but you both trapped me in this desolate place." He raises his other hand in the air before going on. "Forcing me to be trapped here forever, non-existing. Now you all can get you what you deserve."

Mephiles fills his hand with a dark energy ball and throws it straight for Sonic. However, Sonic easily dodges the shot and charges at Mephiles dash. The dark creature, though, just summons purple crystals as a barrier.

"There's no point in resisting your fate." Mephiles spats at him. "Your little friends are already fading away as we speak."

"What?!" Sonic exclaims in shock. He quickly gets back into a fight stance. "What did you to them?!"

"I didn't do anything." Mephiles responds while bringing the crystals back into the ground. "I'm merely informing of what I have seen."

He throws out another energy ball but, this time aiming for Eggman. The doctor simply smacks it away though. Sonic wastes no time and launches a homing attack at the creature, this time quick enough to land a hit before he can protect himself.

Forced backwards, Mephiles stumbles back and Eggman proceeds with a punch from his mech. The attacks sends Mephiles onto the ground.

"Game over Mephiles." Sonic says confidently as he strides over to him. "Now hand over the emerald."

Sonic and Eggman stare at Mephiles hard as he looks down at the ground. However, all he does is throw his head back and laugh at them.

"You really thought I'd go down that easily?" He says while standing up. "I'm disappointed." He flicks his hands into the air, making the area around them rumble.

Purple mist surrounds the platform, consuming Sonic, Eggman, and Mephiles inside. When it finally disappears, all three mobians had vanished from the sight.

XXX

Rotor shifted slightly in his sleep. He wasn't completely aware of his surroundings, but he could hear voices around him. He forced his eyes open but immediately closed the when harsh, white light shined in his vision.

"Hey are you ok?" a male voice asked him. Rotor blinked his eyes, trying to get used to the light.

"Yea...I think..." Rotor answered. Finally clearing up, Rotor saw the outline of Vector looking down at him with a frown.

He slowly sat himself up and gazed around him. He gasped at the sight in front of him and frantically shifted his eyes at everything.

Sitting around him were Rouge, Knuckles, Amy, Cream, Cheese, Vector, and Charmy. They seemed to be held in some sort of transparent bubble. Harsh, white light stretched as far as the eye could see and large, purple vortexes randomly popped in and out of existence. He had never seen anything quite like it.

He glaced back over at Knuckles, who was covered in white bandages all over his body. His face was in a frown.

"What happened?" Rotor asked the group.

"Eggman." Knuckles spat. He sounded tensed and clenched his fist. "He's caused one hell of a mess."

"Don't pay attention to Knuckie here." Rouge answered with a small smile. "He's just irritated."

"Where are we?" Rotor asked, still a little confused on the situation at hand. "And what happened to..." He trailed off as he gazed back over at Knuckles.

"We're still trying to figure things out." Amy replied as she held Cream and Cheese close to her. The three were covered in soot and Amy kept trying to wipe it off as she spoke. "We got ambushed by Shadow just a little before you three ended up in here like us."

"Shadow attacked you guys?!" Rotor exclaimed with shock.

"Yep." Amy answered. "He's also the reason Knuckles is all beat up."

"But it wasn't his fault!" Rouge interrupted in haste. She frowned slightly and looked down at her hands. "...I think Eggman was controlling him somehow." She continues on to explain the situation after they left Angel Island to check on Omega to him. Rotor nods in understanding when she finishes.

"Well, it makes sense why you guys would think that." He stated. "But, I still have one more question." He gazed around him once more before going on. "Does anyone where we are?"

"I believe we are in White Space." Amy stated. "At least it looks a lot like it."

Rotor opens his mouth to ask but Amy explains the whole ordeal before he can get a word in, After listening to the explanation of their location, he scratches his head and puts a hand to his chin. "So, this place is like between time?"

"We're not sure." Vector answered. Charmy sat beside him and had his eyes glued to the vortexes. His eyes were wide with excitement. "Tails could explain it better."

"I'm guessing there's no way out of this bubble either?" Rotor sighed. The group shook their heads in disappointment.

It was silent for a bit after that. Everyone gazed outside the bubble, some looking to be in deep thought. Rotor shifted his eyes back and fourth between the vortexes as he tried to figure out if their was a pattern; anything to help them escape.

Abruptly though, the entire area began to rumble violently. One of the vortexes near the bubble suddenly swelled up and transformed into a large cloud of purple mist. All were glued on the area, all anticipating a possible threat.

However, everyone gasped aloud when the mist dissolved a way, dropping off Sonic and Eggman in front of them.


End file.
